Read Ebook: The Blizzard in the West Being as Record and Story of the Disastrous Storm which Raged Throughout Devon and Cornwall and West Somerset On the Night of March 9th 1891 by Unknown

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When we reach the stage at which mothers are forced to see their children slowly die for lack of milk and bread, or the decencies of life are lost in a sordid scramble for sheer physical existence, then the economic problem becomes the gravest moral problem. The two are merged.

The obvious truth that, if economic preoccupations are not to dominate the minds and absorb the energies of men to the exclusion of less material things, then the fundamental economic needs must be satisfied; the fact, that though the foundations are certainly not the whole building, civilisation does rest upon foundations of food, shelter, fuel, and that if it is to be stable they must be sound--these things have been rendered commonplace by events since the Armistice. But before the War they were not commonplaces. The suggestion that the economic results of war were worth considering was quite commonly rejected as 'offensive,' implying that men went to war for 'profit.' Nations in going to war, we were told, were lifted beyond the region of 'economics.' The conception that the neglect of the economics of war might mean--as it has meant--the slow torture of tens of millions of children and the disintegration of whole civilisations, and that if those who professed to be the trustees of their fellows were not considering these things they ought to be--this was, very curiously as it now seems to us at this date, regarded as sordid and material. We now see that the things of the spirit depend upon the solution of these material problems.

The one fact which stood out clear above all others after the Armistice was the actual shortage of goods at a time when millions were literally dying of hunger. The decline of productivity was obvious. It was due in part to diversion of energies to the task of war, to the destruction of materials, failure in many cases to maintain plant ; to a varying degree of industrial and commercial demoralisation arising out of the War and, later, out of the struggle for political rearrangements both within States and as between States; to the shortening of the hours of labour; to the dislocation, first of mobilisation, and then of demobilisation; to relaxation of effort as reaction from the special strain of war; to the demoralisation of credit owing to war-time financial shifts. We had all these factors of reduced productivity on the one side, and on the other a generally increased habit and standard of expenditure, due in part to a stimulation of spending power owing to the inflation of the currency and in part to the recklessness which usually follows war; and above all an increasingly insistent demand on the part of the worker everywhere in Europe for a higher general standard of living, that is to say, not only a larger share of the diminished product of his labour, but a larger absolute amount drawn from a diminished total.

But the fact we are for the moment mainly concerned with is this: on the one side millions perishing for lack of corn or cotton; on the other corn and cotton in such abundance that they are burned, and their producers face bankruptcy.

Obviously therefore it is not merely a question of production, but of production adjusted to consumption, and vice versa; of proper distribution of purchasing power, and a network of processes which must be in increasing degree consciously controlled. We should never have supposed that mere production would suffice, if there did not perpetually slip from our minds the very elementary truth that in a world where division of labour exists wealth is not a material but a material plus a process--a process of exchange. Our minds are still dominated by the mediaeval aspect of wealth as a 'possession' of static material such as land, not as part of a flow. It is that oversight which probably produced the War; it certainly produced certain clauses of the Treaty. The wealth of England is not coal, because if we could not exchange it for other things--mainly food--it certainly would not even feed our population. And the process by which coal becomes bread is only possible by virtue of certain adjustments, which can only be made if there be present such things as a measure of political security, stability of conditions enabling us to know that crops can be gathered, transported and sold for money of stable value; if there be in other words the indispensable element of contract, confidence, rendering possible the indispensable device of credit. And as the self-sufficing economic unit--quite obviously in the case of England, less obviously but hardly less certainly in other notable cases--cannot be the national unit, the field of the contract--the necessary stability of credit, that is--must be, if not international, then trans-national. All of which is extremely elementary; and almost entirely overlooked by our statesmanship, as reflected in the Settlement and in the conduct of policy since the Armistice.

The matter may be clarified if we summarise what precedes, and much of what follows, in this proposition:--

The present conditions in Europe show that much of its dense population can only live at a standard necessary for civilisation by means of certain co-operative processes, which must be carried on largely across frontiers. The mere physical existence of much of the population of Britain is dependent upon the production by foreigners of a surplus of food and raw materials beyond their own needs.

The processes of production have become of the complex kind which cannot be compelled by preponderant power, exacted by physical coercion.

But the attempt at such coercion, the inevitable results of a policy aimed at securing predominant power, provoking resistance and friction, can and does paralyse the necessary processes, and by so doing is undermining the economic foundations of British life.

What are the facts supporting the foregoing proposition?

Many whose instincts of national protection would become immediately alert at the possibility of a naval blockade of these islands, remain indifferent to the possibility of a blockade arising in another but every bit as effective a fashion.

That is through the failure of the food and raw material, upon which our populations and our industries depend, to be produced at all owing to the progressive social disintegration which seems to be going on over the greater part of the world. To the degree to which it is true to say that Britain's life is dependent upon her fleet, it is true to say that it is dependent upon the production by foreigners of a surplus above their own needs of food and raw material. This is the most fundamental fact in the economic situation of Britain: a large portion of her population are fed by the exchange of coal, or services and manufactures based on coal, for the surplus production, mainly food and raw material, of peoples living overseas. Whether the failure of food to reach us were due to the sinking of our ships at sea or the failure of those ships to obtain cargoes at the port of embarkation the result in the end would be the same. Indeed, the latter method, if complete, would be the more serious as an armistice or surrender would not bring relief.

The hypothesis has been put in an extreme form in order to depict the situation as vividly as possible. But such a condition as the complete failure of the foreigner's surplus does not seem to-day so preposterous as it might have done five years ago. For that surplus has shrunk enormously and great areas that once contributed to feeding us can do so no longer. Those areas already include Russia, Siberia, the Balkans, and a large part of the Near and Far East. What we are practically concerned with, of course, is not the immediate disappearance of that surplus on which our industries depend, but the degree to which its reduction increases for us the cost of food, and so intensifies all the social problems that arise out of an increasing cost of living. Let the standard alike of consumption and production of our overseas white customers decline to the standard of India and China, and our foreign trade would correspondingly decrease; the decline in the world's production of food would mean that much less for us; it would reduce the volume of our trade, or in terms of our own products, cost that much more; this in turn would increase the cost of our manufactures, create an economic situation which one could describe with infinite technical complexity, but which, however technical and complex that description were made, would finally come to this--that our own toil would become less productive.

That is a relatively new situation. In the youth of men now living, these islands with their twenty-five or thirty million population were, so far as vital needs are concerned, self-sufficing. What will be the situation when the children now growing up in our homes become members of a British population which may number fifty, sixty, or seventy millions?

Moreover, the problem is affected by what is perhaps the most important economic change in the world since the industrial revolution, namely the alteration in the ratio of the exchange value of manufactures and food--the shift over of advantage in exchange from the side of the industrialist and manufacturer to the side of the producer of food.

This is a condition which the intensification of nationalism and its hostility to international arrangement will render very much more acute. The patriotism of the future China or Argentina--or India and Australia, for that matter--may demand the home production of goods now bought in England. It may not in economic terms benefit the populations who thus insist upon a complete national economy. But 'defence is more than opulence.' The very insecurity which the absence of a definitely organised international order involves will be invoked as justifying the attempt at economic self-sufficiency. Nationalism creates the situation to which it points as justification for its policy: it makes the very real dangers that it fears. And as Nationalism thus breaks up the efficient transnational division of labour and diminishes total productivity, the resultant pressure of population or diminished means of subsistence will push to keener rivalry for the conquest of territory. The circle can become exceedingly vicious--so vicious, indeed, that we may finally go back to the self-sufficing village community; a Europe sparsely populated if the resultant clerical influence is unable to check prudence in the matter of the birth-rate, densely populated to a Chinese or Indian degree if the birth-rate is uncontrolled.

The economic chaos and social disintegration which have stricken so much of the world have brought a sharp reminder of the primary, the elemental place of food in the catalogue of man's needs, and the relative ease and rapidity with which most else can be jettisoned in our complex civilisation, provided only that the stomach can be filled.

Before the War the towns of Europe were the luxurious and othe hamlet was already exhausted, and although as much as a guinea was offered for a bed by some of the passengers, neither food nor sleeping accommodation could be obtained. A very uncomfortable night was passed in consequence, and many of the ladies suffered severely from hunger and exposure.

H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, on his way to Devonport, was snow-bound at Taunton on Tuesday night, but with about two hundred other passengers, was able to proceed on his journey at the end of the week.

His Royal Highness afterwards conveyed to the Directors of the Company his appreciation of the courtesy and attention he received from the officials and servants of the Great Western Railway, on his journey during the gale and snowstorm, and during his detention at Taunton, on March 11th and 12th, and particularly thanked the Taunton station-master for his services.

AT SEA.

Sad and disastrous as were the effects of the blizzard on land on the night of Monday, March 9th, they were in most cases of a nature more or less reparable. At sea, however, the case was different, and from the afternoon of the day on which the storm commenced to the end of the week wrecks, resulting in the loss of over fifty lives, were strewn along the coast from Start Point to Falmouth. In most cases, such was the fury of the gale, but little help could be afforded from the shore. Generally, to launch a boat or to use a rocket apparatus was out of the question, and those on the shore, anxious to send help to the doomed vessels, had great difficulty in escaping from being blown into the sea. In many instances gallant services were rendered, and all that courage and self-sacrifice could do with the hope of saving life was accomplished; but the time was one of no common peril, and on the Tuesday lives were lost in full view of the cliffs upon the rocky fringes of which the vessels had been driven.

Considerable damage was done during Monday night to many of the hookers belonging to the fishermen of Kingsand and Cawsand. The full force of the blizzard was experienced in Cawsand Bay, and ten of the hookers which had been moored up for the night were driven ashore and sunk. The only boat which rode out the storm was a craft owned by Mr. Andrews of Cawsand. A pilot boat went ashore in one of the little coves just south of the coastguard station, and a small fishing vessel was wrecked close under Lady Emma's Cottage, at Mount Edgcumbe.

At Exmouth, Dawlish, and Teignmouth, although the force of the wind was great, and all three towns sustained damage, there were no calamities at sea. Great injury was done to the pleasure and fishing boats at both of the latter places, but Teignmouth was not so unfortunate as Dawlish in this respect. Its harbour is almost land-locked, and from the beach where the boats are moored, as well as from the quays, the eye glances north-west and south-west upon a beautiful picture of river scenery, of which the distant Dartmoor Hills and the Haldon Heights form the background. The accompanying illustration, from a photograph by Messrs. Valentine & Son, of Teignmouth, taken during the week of the blizzard, depicts one part of this scene in as wintry a garb as any it has worn during the last half century. The village of Shaldon, on the opposite side of the Teign, lies exposed to a S.E. gale blowing across the low-lying sands of the Teignmouth "Point," and here the owners of fishing and other craft had much to lament in the way of destruction to their floating property.

Some trawlers were reported during the week as missing from Brixham, but in course of time anxiety on their account was removed, and they either reached home or news of their safety was received from other ports to which they had run for shelter. Some Plymouth trawlers were also in difficulties, and it was feared that they had been wrecked, but in a few days their whereabouts was ascertained, and it was discovered that they had escaped with somewhat severe damage.

After a while they climbed the cliff, three of them carrying the fourth survivor, who was suffering from exhaustion and injuries, and after heavy toil they managed to get near to Prawle. Here two of the men agreed to remain with the shipmate, who to all appearance was fast succumbing to exhaustion, while the other went into the village for help. The man, like his three surviving comrades, was a Swede, and consequently unable to make himself understood, but Mr. Perry, Lloyd's signalman at Prawle, and the coastguardsman on duty, supplied him with food and clothing, and then went to search for traces of the wreck which had clearly taken place not far off. It was not until long past midnight that the mates of the Swede were discovered, and then it was too late to save the exhausted man, who died almost immediately after their arrival. The remaining survivors were taken into Prawle, and under kind treatment soon recovered.

Mrs. Briggs, wife of one of the lighthouse keepers at the Start, says that she was looking out of her window a little after half-past five o'clock on Monday evening, when she saw the steamer pass very close to the east side of Start Point as if she had come out from the bay. Seeing her great danger, and thinking it was impossible for her to clear the rocks running off from the Point, she hastened to another window, from which she had a view of the Blackstone Rocks. She then saw the steamer broadside on to the rocks. She at once gave an alarm to Mr. Jones, the head-keeper, who hurried out to give any assistance in his power, but within a very few minutes the vessel parted in two, the stern part sinking near the rocks, while the fore part washed away and sank a short distance to the west of the Start.

John Nelson, one of the survivors, said in the course of his evidence at the inquest held on the first eight bodies recovered from the wreck:--"On Monday, 9th inst., I had tea at five o'clock, and went to my bunk. It was the first mate's watch. As I was turning into my bunk I heard someone shout out, 'Land right ahead.' It was blowing a bit stiff in the afternoon at three o'clock, and as the gale increased the canvas was taken in. The vessel struck almost immediately after I heard the shout, and the engines were going full-speed at the time. I came out and stood in the forecastle door. The captain was then on the bridge. The vessel struck first at the bow. When I came on deck she struck aft as well, knocking her propeller and rudder away. The captain then gave the order to get the starboard lifeboat ready for launching. All the three officers were on the bridge. The wind was blowing hard, and the waves were dashing all over the ship. It was daylight, but the Start light was lit. We could see the land plainly enough, although it was thick with heavy rain. There were two lifeboats, one on each side of the ship, and two smaller boats. We lowered the lifeboat and got into it, some 20 or 22 being in it, and got away from the ship on the starboard side. The boat was in charge of the boatswain, and the second and third engineers and the chief steward were in the boat. We left on board the captain, the three mates, the chief engineer, and the mess-room steward. Just as we were turning to get clear of the rocks, we looked at the ship, and saw the captain and the others leave in the other boat on the starboard side. They got safely away from the ship. After the vessel struck we hoisted a red pennant with a white ball as a signal of distress. When we got away it was getting dark, and we saw nothing of the other boat afterwards, but supposed they were following us. We pulled in shore to a kind of bay, but not thinking it safe to land, we went out of that. We could see nothing but rocks on our coming down, and in getting out of the bay our boat capsized. There was a very heavy sea running up against the rocks. We got hold of the keel of the boat, some twelve or fourteen of us that remained, and then the boat turned over again. After that only four or five of us remained sticking to the boat. We stuck to the boat until she broke up on the rocks. When I let go the boat I could feel the rocks with my feet, and I then walked on shore. There were four of us that came on shore, but I could see nothing of any others. When we got on shore we walked to a brake and got shelter. We had to help Rasmossen up, as he had no boots on. He was living half an hour before the coastguards found us, but we had been on shore a long time before they found us--about five or six hours."

Many of the bodies of the unfortunate men were washed ashore within a few days, and not far from the spot where the vessel went down. All of them were not identified, as the survivors had joined the ship too recently to be acquainted with all the officers and crew.

About midnight on the ninth, the storm was at its height, and all men of Start Bay agree that they never remember such a violent storm, the water of the bay being one mass of foam, it being almost impossible to look to the windward. Mr. Jones, the head keeper of the Star Lighthouse, says he was standing in the yard by his home a little after midnight, looking in the direction of the Bay, when he saw right under the headland, and close to the Start, what he considered to be a ship's lights. He called the other keepers, and as well as they were able they got down to the place where they saw the lights. It was at the risk of their lives that they went down the cliffs, and it was only by holding on to each other they were prevented from being blown away. When they got down they could not discover a vestige of anything, neither did they hear a cry of any sort. The coastguards at Hallsands also saw lights, and fired off a rocket and burned a blue light to warn the ship of her danger, but the vessel's lights were only seen a few minutes before they disappeared.

The inquests held on the bodies of those unfortunate seamen who lost their lives in the vicinity of the Start have had the effect of a communication being made to the Board of Trade as to the necessity of life-saving apparatus being placed at Hallsands. In the face of a hurricane of almost unprecedented force, many gallant and eager attempts were made to save life, but with only a very limited measure of success, owing as much to the want of suitable appliances as to the rugged character of the coast, and the merciless fury of the gale.

Some dissatisfaction was expressed that during the wrecks at Porthoustock and Porthalla, on March 9th, when about thirty lives were lost, no life-boat had been launched, and the National Lifeboat Institution sent to St. Keverne, about a fortnight after the occurrence, Commander Biddors, R.N., who made inquiries into the matter. It appeared on investigation that some of the life-boat crew did not readily respond to the call signals, their explanation being that they did not hear or see them. When they arrived at the life-boat station the storm had increased, and it was dangerous to put to sea. A proposal for the provision of a smaller life-boat, requiring fewer oars, has been submitted to the life-boat committee.

IN TOWN AND COUNTRY.

ASHBURTON.--Enormous drifts fell at Ashburton during the blizzard, and most of the roads were completely blocked. At Holne Turn, half a mile from the town, there was an enormous drift a quarter of a mile in extent, and varying in height from eight to twenty feet. Railway and postal arrangements were pretty well adjusted by the end of the week, and business began to proceed as usual. There were some serious losses of stock by farmers in the neighbourhood, and apple-orchards were greatly injured. Masses of snow lodged in the branches of the trees, and broke them down, many of the younger trees having every branch broken off close to the stump. In sheltered valleys the drifts of snow were so great that scarcely a tree escaped injury. Bakers who supplied country residents were unable to go out to them with their supplies.

BARNSTAPLE.--The chief town of North Devon had a very harsh experience. Traffic was for some time suspended, but the inconvenience in this respect was not nearly so great as in the south of Devon and in Cornwall. In the districts around Barnstaple there were very heavy losses of sheep and lambs. Farmers near Morthoe were particularly unfortunate, nearly two hundred sheep and lambs belonging to them having perished. Through roads and railways being blocked the markets were greatly interfered with, and this, besides cutting off from many of the country people their weekly supplies, was a great loss to the tradespeople of the town.

BIDEFORD, which has already been referred to, did not suffer so severely as many other North Devon towns. Railway communication with Ilfracombe was entirely suspended throughout Tuesday, the 10th, but as the weather moderated the line was cleared without any very great amount of inconvenience having been experienced.

BODMIN.--In this important western town there was an almost entire cessation of traffic from Monday afternoon until the closing days of the week. The telegraphic and train services were suspended, causing the usual amount of loss and distress. Business on the Tuesday was entirely suspended, snow falling heavily all day, and a large quantity of snow in the street stopped all vehicular traffic. The drifts were so high that residents who had driven from the town on Monday could not return, and great anxiety was naturally felt for their safety. It was found on the following day, however, that in all cases, the travellers were safe. Not infrequently they had been obliged to take the horses out of their vehicles, leave traps or carriages in the roads--often under the snow--and seek shelter in the nearest farm-house. There were very serious losses of sheep in this district. Among others, losses of this description were sustained by Mr. Rowse, of Llancarpe, Mr. Glanville, of Pen Bugle, and Mr. G. Spear, of Bodmin. Many sheep were rescued, but only after great difficulty. On Thursday night there was again a heavy snowstorm, accompanied by a gale of wind, but it was neither so severe nor of such long duration as the blizzard of Monday and Tuesday.

BRENT.--This moorland town has grown famous through the snowing up at its gates of the "Zulu" express, from London, on the memorable Monday night. Snow fell there from Monday afternoon to Wednesday morning. A snow-plough with three engines arrived from Newton Abbott on Thursday morning, but for some time it was not very effective, the snow being so high on either side of the line that as soon as the way was fairly clear the banks in the rear of the plough toppled over, and the line was once more blocked. The depth of the snow in the town was so great as to be frequently above the windows and doors of the houses. A road cutting scene was photographed at the time by Mr. Rowe, of Devonport, to whom we are indebted for the view. The loss of cattle here was very great, nearly every farmer having suffered. A large number of cattle, sheep and ponies in the possession of residents of the neighbourhood grazed upon the adjacent moor, and many of the former, at all events, perished. Mr. Linerdon, of Yelland, lost cattle to the value of over ?100; Mr. Pinney, of Diptfort, dug out 100 sheep from the snow; while Mr. Heath, of Brent Mills, Mr. Vooght, of Lutton, and Mr. S. Northmore were heavy losers. Mr. Luscombe, of Hall, Harford, had on the moor 600 Scotch cattle and 1,200 sheep, a large proportion of which he has not yet recovered. Mr. J. Smerdon, of Brent, and Mr. Hurrell, of Bradridge, lost sheep; and Miss Maunder, Mr. B. Hingston, and Mr. J. Hard lost ponies. Until Saturday the residents of Binnicknowle, a village about two miles from Brent, and largely dependent upon it for supplies of food, were unable to obtain provisions. On that day, however, a party of labourers succeeded in cutting a footway and thus communication was opened up.

BUDE.--The outside world and Bude were not so thoroughly estranged during the days succeeding the storm as was the case in some other instances, telegraphic communication remaining unbroken. All the other inconveniences of the blizzard--absence of mails, presence of immense drifts of snow, and similar discomforts--were freely experienced. There was an anxious time among the shipping interest in the port, many of the coasting vessels being at sea at the time the hurricane was raging. These vessels did not all escape without calamity, but, on the whole, the damage wrought to the shipping of Bude was not great.

CALSTOCK.--The mining town of Calstock received some rough treatment during the Monday and Tuesday of the storm, and damage was here and there done to house property, but as far as the town was concerned it may be safely said to have escaped marvellously well. Bearing in mind its exposed position on the river bank, and the many tall chimneys that rear their heads from the hillside, it is singular that no smash of any magnitude has to be recorded. This is all the more remarkable when the tremendous destruction that occurred in the district, and even close to the town, is considered. On the opposite side of the river, the tracks leading through the woods to Buralston Station were rendered nearly impassable by the number of trees that fell, and the whole wood through which the path runs was a complete wreck. Mr. James, at the Passage Inn, from which the ferry leaves to cross to Calstock, was very unfortunate, his loss being a severe one. In addition to great damage to his rose-trees, for which his house has for many years been famous, the well-known blossom-covered wicker bower, standing to the left of the house, was blown bodily away into the orchard, and almost simultaneously his cherry and apple trees began to fall. Of these he lost fifty-six.

One curious incident happened at the grounds of Mr. James, in the apparently narrow escape of a couple of geese. The geese were sitting behind a barn, with twenty-two eggs under them. During the storm of Monday, the barn having been badly knocked about, and the whole orchard in a state of wreck, the fate of the geese was not held in much doubt, and the depth of the snow in the place making salvage operations very difficult, their place of concealment was not reached until Thursday after the storm. The snow being cleared from the back of the barn, however, the geese were found still sitting in the same position as that in which they had last been seen. With the exception that they had evidently worked their heads about, keeping the cavities large enough to give them breathing room, it was quite clear that they had not attempted to move. Warm food and hay were at once given to them, and they were made as comfortable as possible, and in due course, eleven goslings were hatched from the twenty-two eggs upon which the parent geese had sat through such a trying time. The young geese are now as sturdy as could be desired, and Mr. James is naturally very proud of them for having seen the light in spite of such difficulties. The mother geese will also, in all probability, be preserved as curiosities for some time to come.

CAMBORNE.--The change at Camborne would appear to have been an unusually startling one, since a few days before Monday, butterflies were to be seen flying about. Snow commenced to fall in the district at two o'clock on Monday afternoon, and this soon developed into the blizzard. The storm is described as the greatest and the most severe known by the oldest residents in the parish. The telegraph wires were blown down, and, lying across the streets, threw several horses down. The houses were so covered with snow as to be almost unrecognizable, and in many places the drifts were over six feet deep. Ornamental, and other trees in the town were completely spoiled, and traffic was suspended. Anxiety was at one time felt in the town for the safety of four young girls, dressmakers, of Beacon village, who left the town on the Monday evening, but it was afterwards learned that they were all in safety. In Burse-road and Pendarmes-road the shrubs and trees were broken down, and lay overhanging and obstructing the footpaths. Passages had to be cut to get to the houses, half as high as the houses themselves. A 'bus running between Camborne and Truro was snowed up near Pool, and left in the road; and near it was an abandoned organ, the peripatetic performer on which had been unable to bear it with him to a place of safety.

At a village about a mile and a half from Camborne drifts of snow were observed thirty feet deep. In the town the Board schools were closed for the week. All communication with surrounding towns was, as a matter of course, cut off for several days. At Beacon and Troon, adjoining villages, people were taken from their bedroom windows by means of ladders; and in one case, at a funeral, the coffin had to be slid down over a snowdrift. At Breage a woman was found dead in the snow. Farmers were busy in every direction rescuing their cattle and sheep from the exposed positions, but the losses in the neighbourhood were very great, hundreds of sheep being buried. Among others who suffered in this way were Mr. Carter, of Troon, who lost nearly twenty sheep and lambs; Mr. Hickens, of Tregear; Mr. Glasson, of Crowan; Mr. Josiah Thomas, of Roskear, Tuckingmill; and Mr. P. Thomas, of Camborne. Several donkies and ponies in the district perished. The little villages of Penponds, Kehelland, and Pengegon, presented a wretched appearance, and at Penponds especially it was impossible to distinguish any hedges. Mr. E. Rogers, who had undertaken to carry out some funeral arrangements at this village, was obliged to take the coffin over hedges and ditches in order to get it to the house. At Pengegon, where the water-supply is solely obtained from wells and springs, it was found necessary to use melted snow for domestic purposes. The old thatched farmhouse of Pengegon, on the Wednesday, when the sun shone, presented a strikingly beautiful appearance, and was a prominent feature of the landscape.

The village of Treslothan also shared the effect of the storm. Trees were damaged and blown down in large numbers, and even as late as Good Friday snow nearly a foot deep lay on some of the paths. A large amount of damage was also done to trees and shrubs at Reskadirmick, the abode of Captain W. C. Vivian, the beautiful carriage drive to the house being terribly disfigured. At the factories and mines business operations were, for some time, entirely suspended, and it is calculated that during the week quite a thousand persons of both sexes were enforcedly idle. Work might have gone on at the factories, but in many cases the operatives were unable to leave their homes. At the mines there was great anxiety, it being feared that the engines would stop for want of coals. Passages were, however, in time cut through, and not more than two or three engines actually ceased working. Cuttings were made from the railway station to South Condurrow and Wheal Grenville mines, a distance of more than a mile. So urgent was the need for coal at West Seaton mine on Saturday, the 14th, that forty miners were sent to help the labourers from Portreath to make a road from the railway to the mine. The Wheal Grenville and Newton mines were stopped for want of coal for some days. At Dolcoath, however, considerable difficulty was experienced on the floors in getting a sufficient supply of water to work the stamps, owing to the leats being blocked. At the fire stamps, in particular, both engines for a time ceased work, and operations were not again renewed until late on Tuesday afternoon. The openworks suffered considerably, as it took nearly the whole of the week to clear away the snow from the frames and huddles. The miners themselves were greatly inconvenienced owing to some of their homes being situated at a distance from the mines, and their being unable to get to their work; while many who had been working underground during the afternoon, found, on coming to the surface, that they could not reach their residences. At Crowan, the Rev. H. Molesworth St. Aubyn, organized and worked hard with a body of men to help in opening up communication with Camborne.

CARGREEN.--At this riverside village, situated on the banks of the Tamar, the gale of Monday and Tuesday caused great havoc among the fruit-trees. Mr. E. Elliott, of Landulph, lost about three hundred apple-trees, many of which had been planted by himself thirty years before.

DAWLISH.--During the progress of the storm at Dawlish on Tuesday, the Ladies' Bathing Pavilion, which stood on the beach in front of the Marine Parade, was carried away by the sea, and almost entirely destroyed. The pavilion was erected by a limited liability company in 1880, and the annual income accruing from it had reached between ?70 and ?80. The fishermen and others of this attractive watering-place sustained great losses by the destruction of fishing and pleasure boats. At the Coastguard Station the boathouse was partially unroofed, and large blocks of granite were hurled a great distance. As on Plymouth Hoe, the iron seats on the sea-wall were rolled over and broken. Houses in various parts of the town lost chimney-tops and slates, and some large trees, standing in the grounds of the Manor House, were stripped of their branches. At Dawlish Water, a cow, belonging to Mr. Dufty, was killed by a falling tree. Discomfort was experienced by the few passengers who travelled from Exeter to Dawlish on the night of Tuesday, by the train which should have reached the latter town by about eight o'clock. On reaching the boathouse, near Powderham Castle, a block in the shape of a snow-drift was encountered, and the passengers made for a hut which was found not far off, and a fire being got alight, they remained there until five o'clock on Wednesday morning, when a relief engine and snow-plough, with a carriage, arriving, they were conveyed to their destination.

ERMINGTON.--Roads everywhere here were completely blocked for a week, and neither supplies of provisions, letters, nor newspapers were received. The farmers were great sufferers, scores of sheep having been buried in the snow, which in some places was fifteen feet deep. The work of digging out the sheep commenced during the bright weather of Wednesday, when many ewes were found to be dead, the lambs, in some cases, being found alive by the side of the dead mothers. Instances were met with as late as Saturday where sheep got out of the snow fresh and vigorous, after having been buried since the Monday. At Kingston, near Ermington, nearly thirty sheep belonging to one farm were blown into the sea, and from Ringmore, another village in the same district, 350 sheep were lost.

EXETER.--In addition to the interference with railway traffic, and the collapse of telegraphic communication between the capital of the county and the other portions of Devon and of Cornwall that has been already briefly described, great inconveniences were experienced in the city and all the surrounding villages through the violence of the wind and the depth of the drifts of snow. Several accidents to house property, in the way of falling chimneys and walls, occurred, but nothing of a particularly serious nature was heard of. Business was partially suspended, and the streets were almost entirely deserted. Great interest was felt in connection with the railway blocks further west, and various exciting rumours were circulated from time to time, many of them being, fortunately, without foundation.

FOWEY.--At this sea-port very severe weather was experienced. The whole country round was covered with snow, and communication by telegraph, except to Lostwithiel and St. Austell, was impossible. Fowey does not appear to have experienced much of the effects of the gale on Monday night and Tuesday, but a strong wind with snow showers, visited the town on the following Thursday. There were no casualties, and no great loss of sheep, as, though many were buried in the snow, nearly all were recovered.

GRAMPOUND ROAD.--Here snow commenced falling at about noon on Monday, and continued with only a few minutes' cessation for twenty-four hours. The blizzard nature of the storm was most severely felt, and among other distressing events hundreds of sheep were lost. All telegraphic communication was completely stopped. The last up-train from Penzance, due at Grampound Road at about twenty minutes past eight in the evening, was blocked by the snow a quarter of a mile west of the station. The passengers were got out, and, under the guidance of some of the villagers, made their way across the fields, and took shelter in the hotels. Strenuous efforts were made to extricate the train, but it was not until half-past four on the following morning that the difficult task was accomplished, and that the passengers were enabled to proceed on their journey. The loss of sheep in this district was very great.

GUNNISLAKE.--Throughout the whole of Monday night the blizzard raged in Gunnislake, and only slightly abated its force on Tuesday. Havoc was spread on every hand, and in one case a very serious accident, that narrowly escaped fatal consequences, occurred. This was at the house of Mr. Bowhay, surgeon, where a neighbouring chimney crashed through the roof and fell into the kitchen. Two servants and an infant child were in the kitchen at the time, and one of the former was knocked to the floor, and on being extricated was found to have had her leg broken. The other servant girl and Mr. Bowhay's child received cuts. On the opposite side of the road a chimney fell upon a house named East View, crushing in the end roof of a house in which, soon after, and in a room immediately below that into which the rubbish fell, a child was born. Large trees, over fifty years' old, were rooted up and thrown across the main thoroughfares. At Drakewell's Mine serious damage was done to the roofs, and at Heath Cottage, adjoining the mine, nine tall Scotch firs, which stood within fifteen feet of each other, were rooted up, and left lying in all directions.

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