1800. J Address. 03 



rejiort at the Secretariat press. This local assistance made the publica- 

 tion of a suitable repoi-t possible, and practicable, and a report and chart 

 embodying observations from upwards of 40 stations, situated not only 

 in the Bombay Presidency, but in the large wheat and cotton-producing 

 districts in the Central Provinces and North-Western Provinces, which 

 supply these products to Bombay for use or for export, has been issued 

 from May 1889. It has been most useful and is so much appreciated 

 in Bombay that its establishment on a permanent basis next year is 

 practically certain. 



Another important step in advance in the practical work of the 

 Department was the adoption of an extended and improved system of 

 storm signals for the Bombay or West coast of India ports. It may, in 

 the first place, be premised that it is evidently more difficult to warn the 

 Bombay than the Bay of Bengal coast. The Bay of Bengal is sur- 

 rounded on all sides except the south by a battery of observing stations 

 and is of such limited extent that a large cyclonic storm in it always 

 gives certain indications of its existence at the coast stations some time 

 before it reaches land. The Arabian Sea has, so far as the work of the 

 Indian Department is concerned, stations at only one side viz., the east, 

 and it is quite possible for cyclones to form in it and cross to the north 

 or west without giving any indication to the Bombay coast stations. 

 It is hence practically possible to wai^n steamers at any of the Bay of 

 Bengal ports of the existence of any cyclonic storm they are likely to 

 meet with in the Bay if they leave port. Sucb a thing is only partially 

 possible for vessels leaving Bombay or Kurrachee, and it has hitherto 

 not been attempted at all. The system adopted was suggested by Sir 

 Henry Morland, Port Officer of Bombay, and is similar to that used to 

 warn British coasts. Its aim is to warn the ports of any approaching 

 storm likely to give a gale to the port and also to intimate to shipping 

 in the ports the position and course of any cyclonic storm in the Arabian 

 Sea, the existence of which is shewn by the coast observations. 



Several minor improvements have been effected in the Bengal or 

 Calcutta storm-warning system. Arrangements have been made for 

 obtaining early weather information from the pilot- vessels at the Sand- 

 teads. Telegrapliic communication to Diamond Island (the most im- 

 portant station for indicating the first existence of storms forming near 

 the Andamans) has been much improved. 



Mr. Pedler some time ago drew my attention to the meteorological 

 interest of the fact noticed at the time of Mr. Spencer's first balloon 

 ascent, of his first travelling in a northerly direction and then in a south- 

 easterly, and he has kindly given me the following note on the subject. 



" In connection with the subject of Meteorology, it may be mentioned 



