at different hours, till Monday morning. At London the storm produced the customary effects; many trees in the parks and gardens were snapped in twain; chimney-pots and tiles were scattered in all directions; the chimneystacks of old houses were blown down, crushing in the crazy roofs, and injuring the inmates. One person was struck on the head by a tile, and killed; a woman was killed in Bishopsgate by the falling of a stack of chimneys. At Manchester the gale was very furious. Trees, cottages, a brewhouse chimney, and portions of roofs, were blown down. Two pinnacles of the new church of St. Paul were blown down, and crushed through the roof. At Liverpool great damage was done to the shipping; some vessels were blown on to the sands and wrecked; and a mill in the course of erection was completely overthrown. At Windsor a large gasometer was blown down, and there was great havoc among the trees in the park. At Oxford a large stack of chimneys at Magdalen College gave way, and fell upon the President's residence. At Southampton the shipping was much damaged. At Carlisle a large wool-spinning factory was blown down. The steeple of Trinity Church, Stockton-on-Tees, fell upon the roof, and destroyed much of the structure; part of Middlesborough Church was destroyed.

On the coasts the shipping suffered severely, with lamentable sacrifice of life. A vessel was seen to founder near Tynemouth. At Brighton and Portsmouth vessels were driven on shore. At Plymouth where considerable damage was done to the harbour works-a brig was lost near the Mew Stone: all the crew perished:

on Tuesday fourteen bodies had been washed ashore. Two ships were lost on the sands near Dungeness; one was an emigrant ship from Hamburg to South America, and had some 80 people on board, of whom only 40 came to shore alive by clinging to pieces of wreck; of the other all hands were saved. Three ships foundered in the Downs: all the crews are supposed to have been lost. At Lyme Regis, the Heroine, an emigrant ship from London to Port Philip, was totally lost. Boats put out, and the crews and passengers were saved; but, unfortunately, four brave fellows perished through a wave filling the boat. At Aldborough a brig was dashed pieces, and all on board perished. A Dutch vessel was lost at Orfordness, and some of the hands were drowned. In Yarmouth Roads a vessel foundered, and four of her people were lost. Three men were drowned in a brig that was wrecked near Bridlington. In Morecombe Bay the gale was heavy from the south-west; a schooner was driven ashore, with all on board dead, with the exception of one man. Higher up the coast many wrecks happened, and the south pier and lighthouse at Mary port are reported to have been broken up.

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Very early on Christmas morn ing Dublin was visited by a fierce storm, which raged for some hours, strewing the streets with tiles and slates from the roofs. On Sunday night the storm broke out again, but with far greater violence, and lasted for eleven hours. Houses were damaged as in other places, but no life was lost. Some damage was done to the Exhibition building. At Milltown a large tree fell on the lodge of a factory, and three persons were killed. The

shipping at Kingstown was a good deal damaged, and a schooner was sunk by another vessel running foul of her. The accounts from other parts of the country are equally disastrous. At Limerick a man was killed; the wind lifted him from the pavement, his head struck against a wall, and his brains were dashed out. Many vessels were driven on shore, some of which became total wrecks.

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A complicated disaster occurred near the Isle of Man. A large bark, named the Lily, from Liverpool for Africa, was caught by the gale on Sunday evening, and driven on shore close to the Calf of Man. In endeavouring to leave the ship the captain and five of the crew were drowned. The rest of the crew succeeded in reaching the shore in safety, but only to meet with death in another form. Next morning a number of people from the shore boarded the ship, along with the portion of the crew saved. A considerable quantity of gunpowder (near 50 tons) formed part of the cargo. They had been on board about an hour when the vessel blew up, and every one on board was killed. It is thought that not fewer than 30 perished. The vessel was blown to fragments, and pieces of wood, iron, copper, guns, and parts of human bodies, were strewed around the country for miles.

THE FLOODS.-The overflowing of the waters has continued to an extent which has produced great damage and distress in many parts of the kingdom.

In Herefordshire, the Wye and other streams have subjected the adjacent parts to repeated inundations; the Hereford and Gloucester Canal, which had burst its embank

ments, combined with the surplus waters of the Lugg, laid a large extent of land under water. These disasters completely put a stop to the inland traffic, and large numbers of bargemen and "navvies " (the excavators employed in the earthworks of railways) were thrown out of employment and reduced to great distress.

At Carnarvon, the streams, generally small rivulets, were swollen by the rains from the Welsh mountains, and laid the valleys under water, flooded the town, and did much damage to the vessels lying in the harbour. A mountain lake, near the Penrhyn slate quarries, burst its boundaries, swept away several houses, and drowned one

man.

The country round Oxford continued inundated: at Nottingham, the Trent again overflowed: at Shields, the Tyne came down with great violence, and did much damage to the shipping-a barge laden with iron was upset, two men were crushed and drowned; a wall was undermined and thrown down, burying two men; a schooner was forced from her moorings and wrecked; nine men were drowned in the vicinity.

At Exeter, the Exe and other small streams rose to a great height, and did much injury to the houses and the railway in the lower parts of the town.

At Dover, the continued rains brought down large masses of cliff; 40 or 50 tons of chalk crushed a house in Snargate Street, but no one was hurt. At Hastings, an immense mass of sandstone cliff fell upon the beach, nearly burying two persons-one, a woman, fainted on perceiving her narrow escape.

In Cumberland and Westmoreland the numerous streams were

greatly swollen; the waters in the lakes were consequently raised far above their usual mark; the valleys were inundated, and many persons were drowned.

In Scotland, the inundations were not less formidable. The impetuous streams of that country were greatly swollen, and did great damage. The Tay and the Earn, in Perthshire, rolled down in immense floods. The whole neighbourhood of Perth was a vast lake, the beautiful Inches were covered, and much of the " fair city" laid under water. In the western counties, the Nith, the Annan, the Moffat, and the Dee, rose over the adjacent country. In every part large numbers of sheep were drowned, and the labours of the husbandman suspended.

From Ireland similar accounts have been received; floods have been prevalent in all parts of the country, putting a stop to agricultural operations, and diffusing a general gloom.

Towards the close of the year the tremendous falls of rain had somewhat abated, and the inundations in some measure subsided. There has not been so great a fall of rain within a limited period since 1834; and then it was only 16.65 inches for the year. In 1850, the amount for the year was 18.28 inches; in 1851, 20.79 inches; in November, 1852, nearly 8 inches; the estimated amount for the year being 33.17 inches. The annual average is 24 inches.

One of the most serious consequences of the long-continued wet weather is that a very large breadth of land has been excluded from cultivation altogether, and seriously deteriorated; elsewhere the land has been rendered unfit for seed, and the harvest of next year

will be in a great measure dependent upon the spring sowing. Corn rose considerably in price.

COLLIERY ACCIDENTS. Some terrible catastrophes have occurred this month in collieries.

On the 6th instant, a huge column of water, accumulated in an old shaft, burst into the Shortwood Colliery near Bristol. It appeared that the works had been carried on with great irregularity, and had approached the still more irregular workings of the old shaft so closely, that, upon striking the side, an orifice had been made, through which the water poured, but which had been stopped by a wooden plug. It was at some slight partition like this that the water burst in, and put the lives of near 50 people in jeopardy. The greater part, however, made their escape into higher workings, but two were drowned.

More terrible consequences ensued from an explosion of gas in the Elsecar pit, near Barnsley, and not far from the scene of the frightful accident at Rawmarsh. The Elsecar pit belongs to Earl Fitzwilliam, and had been fitted with such precautionary appliances as made it one of the best-ventilated and safest pits in that county. Unfortunately, these precautions were defeated by the carelessness of the men, 142 of whom were working in the pit at the time of the accident (the 22nd December). A part of the arrangement consists of "broad gate doors" which are the communications of one passage with another, and keep the current of pure air in one continual course throughout the pit. While the men were at dinner, one of these was left open; and the consequence was that there was a large accumula

tion of inflammable gas. One of the men, knowing that it was wrong that it should be open, suddenly shut it, and thus sent a strong current of atmospheric air and gas into the south level of the pit, where it took fire and exploded. The men working in that level were instantly entombed in

a mass of fallen coal; and the noise of the explosion was so great that it was heard for miles. By this catastrophe nine men were instantaneously killed; eleven others are named as more or less severely burnt or injured; and many others are reported to have been more slightly hurt.

1851. 1852.

19

372

355

misconduct or want

of caution

Servants injured from ditto

17

20

57

64

27

63

53

21

61

17

14

December

6,890

7,336