8 H. James Rainey — Barisal Gtms. [Jan. 



2. Wote on the Barisal Guns, the existence of volcanic vents in the 

 direction of those sounds. — By H. James Rainey. 



I find that Mr. Mansou, in his letter embodied in extenso in the 

 Sub- Committee's initial Report on the aforesaid curious phenomena, 

 states : — 



" At page 8 of the pamphlet of Col. Waterhouse I see a mistake made 

 by Mr. Rainey there quoted concerning an ' active volcanic train ' which 

 is supposed to run up and down this coast. There is nothing volcanic 

 anywhere near, but no doubt Mr. Rainey is thinking of the burning 

 springs in the Sita Kund range, and the so-called Mud Volcanoes of 

 Ramri and Cheduba. These are nothing but the escape of marsh 

 gas," etc. 



In one of my papers on the ' Barisal Guns,' communicated to the 

 Society as far back as twenty years ago I think,* which in fact elicited 

 the first regular discussion on the subject, I believe I stated that, " an 

 active volcanic train " ran along the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, 

 chiefly based on information derived from a Geological Map published, 

 if I remember rightly, in Dr. M'Clelland's Cal. Jour. Nat. His. This 

 statement is substantially correct, and it is evident that Mr. Manson is 

 not aware of the fact, well-known to Geologists, that the ' great Sunda 

 group of volcanic vents,' starting from the eastern islands there, passes 

 throuo-h Java and Sumatra, and extends northward as far as Chittagong. 



The fact of Mr. Manson designating the veritable mud volcanoes of 

 Ramri and Cheduba as " so-called Mud Volcanoes," shews that, he 

 considers steam mud volcanoes as ' true ' mud volcanoes, and ' gas ' mud 

 volcanoes as ' pseudo ' mud volcanoes, which is a distinction not re- 

 cognised by the general body of Geologists. These mud volcanoes are 

 by no means insignificant, as they are subject to fiery paroxysmal erup- 

 tions, generally synchronous with seismic phenomena, when the flames 

 rise to the height of several hundred feet, probably due to the pre- 

 sence of volatile liquid petroleum hydrocarbons. But, whether the 

 ejecting force is altogether different gases, — not solely marsh gas, or 

 both gases and steam combined, — has not been conclusively established, 

 as stated by Mr. Mallet in his Report on these mud volcanoes. Vide 

 Records., G. S. L, Pt. II, 1878, p. 205. 



* I may here state that, I am labouring under the disadvantage of writing 

 merely from memory and without the aid of books of reference, owing to the 

 destruction by fire of my rather extensive Library of works on India, and all my 

 manuscript notes on Natural History and other subjects, including my observations 

 on the ' Barisal Guns ' and deductions drawn therefrom, extending over a period of 

 nearly a quarter of a century. 



