144 Proceedings of the Asiatie Society. | Juny, 
by a detonation which made me shudder. The observatory ap- 
peared a mass of fire, there was a sound of metal striking metal, 
and I observed the large conductor on the east of the Survey- 
or Generals Office looking as if it was red hot. This was momen- 
tary, and as I was anxious to observe all I possibly could, I again 
watched the observatory. Again the conductor over the anemo- 
meter was alive with sparks along the same portion of it from A to 
A, but not a spark seemed to touch the point. This seemed ex- 
traordinary to me, so I watched more closely to see if any other 
portions of the conductor were similarly affected, and now noticed 
that the horizontal portion of it from the observatory to the back 
stair case was similarly affected, as roughly shewn in fig. 2, on 
pl. II; horizontal portions of the conductor from A to A and B to B 
receiving and emitting sparks. . 
About } to 2 a. m. the lightning and thunder was incessant, at 
each flash and explosion the masses of cloud seemed to recede from ~ 
each other, rise and then fall lower towards the earth than before. 
While watching this, there was a flash of lightning and I distinctly 
saw a stream of electricity, from a cloud overhead, discharged up- 
on the Office, which shot back again into the cloud, and then 
flashed off towards the East end of Park Street; this discharge I 
believe struck No. 22, Park Street. 
What I witnessed will be best understood from the drawing 
given in figure 3, of plate II. 
The conductor above the anemometer (A) and the one on the 
east of the Office (B) again appeared red hot, and the horizontal 
portions emitted sparks for an instant only. After this there was 
a perfect lull for nearly 10 minutes and then followed a succession 
of flashes and detonations, all overhead, and from W. to S. over 
Chowringhee and Park Street and south towards the Martiniere, 
which I can only describe as a blaze of lightning and a terrific roar 
of thunder. 
This first portion of the storm seemed to me to pass away to the 
South and Hast, and then turn round by east to north or N. East. 
Throughout this storm, for nearly 4 hours, I closely watched the 
streams of electricity discharged towards this city and really fancied 
that nearly every house must have been struck. From Government 
