94 Address. [Feb. 



case ample and sufficient warning was given to the Bay of Bengal Ports. 

 During the prevalence of such storms in the Bay, the Reporter has an 

 exceedingly responsible and most arduous task to perform night and day 

 till they disappear, and on this account the Society has to regret the loss 

 of Mr. Pedler's valuable services as Treasurer, the strain of constant 

 work and anxiety having obliged him to give up all extraneous work. 

 It is satisfactory to know that arrangements have been made for giving 

 the Reporter assistance at such times. 



The duty of warning the West- Coast ports was transferred to the 

 Simla Meteorological office in August last. The system in force differs 

 from that followed for the Bay of Bengal Ports and has been found un- 

 satisfactory, because it is limited to the warning of the Ports of ap- 

 proaching storms and not to the warning of ships in ports of the existence 

 of distant storms in the Arabian Sea which they might encounter if they 

 left port. The disaster to the Vaitarna (which went down, with 800 per- 

 sons on board in November last, during a storm in the Arabian Sea that 

 only slightly affected the coast ports) has drawn attention to the defects 

 of the signal system, and it is hoped it will soon be placed on a satis- 

 factory footing. 



The Government of India has recently sanctioned a series of changes, 

 most of which came into force on the 1st of January last. One of the 

 most important is the more systematic collection of observations of 

 storms than has yet been attempted. It may be desirable to point out 

 that storms in India may be classed as follows : 



1st, Cyclonic storms of the South- West Monsoon. 



2nd, Cyclonic storms of the North-East Monsoon, or cold- weather 

 storms, during which by far the larger proportion of the winter rainfall 

 of Upper India and the snowfall of the Himalayan area occurs. 



3rd, Hailstorms, Nor' -westers, Tornadoes, and other small but 

 excessively violent storms of the hot weather, which occur chiefly in the 

 neighbourhood of the seas and hills. 



4th, Duststorms, such as occur frequently in the hot weather in the 

 driest districts of N.-W. India. 



Much labour has been devoted (and on the whole successfully) to 

 the investigation of the first two classes of storms. Little has, however, 

 been done to elucidate the meteorological features of the last two classes. 

 District officers, who have ample opportunities of collecting local 

 information, could provide important data, if they occasionally ascertained 

 the extent, exact times of occurrence and variations of intensity of the 

 more severe hot- weather storms in their Districts. It is highly probable 

 that the Nor'-Westers of Bengal are of very limited extent. Usually, 

 however, a large number of these detached storms appear to occur about 



