Last Saturday, and on the previous evening, one of the
worst gales ever experienced raged throughout Great Britain, doing an enormous amount of damage to property, and causing the lose of at least one hundred and fifty lives. This was the first calculation ; but it is feared that when the whole tale of wrecks is known, the loss will be found to have been con- siderably greater. In London, very little harm was done ; but the force of the wind can be estimated from the fact that, on Saturday, an iron roof, weighing a couple of tons, was lifted off the Plumstead Football Pavilion, and blown over a wall 30 ft. high on to a ground where some boys were at play, one of whom was severely injured. In Birmingham, the pressure of the storm was at one time equal to that of 17 lb. to the square foot, and the velocity registered was forty miles an hour. In Lancashire, hundreds of chimney-stacks were blown down, houses were unroofed, walls thrown over, and new buildings wrecked. In Scotland the effects of the gale were even more serious. In Lochwinnoch, Ayrshire, a large factory was partly wrecked by the wind, and three persons were killed. In fact, the storm came very little short of a hurricane. One wonders whether there is anything to prevent a real tornado in these islands, with whole cities levelled and every tree in a great county torn up by the roots.
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