The Elk County Advocate

PREDICTING A GREAT STORM
An Astronomer Who Looks for Widespread Destruction in March.

Washington, Dec. 1.—The President has received the following communication, dated November 27, from Professor E. Stone Wiggins, LL. D., Astronomer of the Canadian finance department:

"May it please your Excellency

On the 23d of September last I announced through the Canadian press that a great storm would occur in March next; that it would first be felt in the Northern Pacific; would appear in the Gulf of Mexico on the night of the 9th, and, being reflected by the Rocky mountains, would cross this meridian from the west at noon of Sunday of March 11, 1883. No vessel, whatever her dimensions, will be safe out of harbor, and none of small tonnage can hope to survive the tidal wave and fury of this tempest. As the wind will blow from the southeast the planetary force will be sufficient to submerge the lowlands of the American coast, especially those bordering on the Gulf of Mexico and washed by the Gulf Stream, while the air currents for several hundred miles along the east side of the Rocky Mountain range, owing to the great atmospheric pressure in those regions, will spread universal destruction. The New England States will also suffer severely from the wind and floods. No point outside of harbor in the whole area of the Atlantic, especially north of the Equator, will be a place of safety, for this will be preeminently the greatest storm that has visited this continent since the day of your illustrious first president. In view of this event, therefore, I take the great liberty of representing to your Excellency the advisability of ordering all United States ships into safe harbor not later than the 5th of March till this storm be passed."