200 Report on Barisdl Guns. [Aug. 



Mr. Rainey reports that the sounds come always from a south-westerly 

 direction, from the direction of the river. If the other observers had 

 repeated their observations, and given information as to the position 

 of the river from where the sounds were heard, this connection might 

 have been more thoroughly established. The other points referred 

 to in the reports are the electrical disturbance and state of the tides. 

 The existence of the former, near or at a distance, is negatived by 

 all observers except Messrs. Crawford, Rainey and Bison. Mr. Elson 

 reports the sounds heard by him at Moyapore on the 29th April, 

 five hours after a nor'wester had passed over. The sound of thun- 

 der died away in the distance, and some time afterwards the ' guns ' 

 became audible. He considers them due to thunder in the distance. 

 Mr. Rainey says thunder and bombs were heard before and after 

 the ' guns ' he reports, but the thunder came from the S. E. while the 

 ' guns ' were from the S. W. The tide is in the majority of cases 

 reported as full, but sometimes half full and low tide. 



The more important letters have been sent by Messrs. Manson and 

 Waller. The former writes of what was observed by him ten or twelve 

 years ago, and after shewing that the banks of the river have the power 

 of concentrating sounds so that echoes may be heard after passing over 

 50 to 100 miles, he enumerates various sounds loud enough to produce 

 these echoes. The more frequent sounds arise from breaking surf, falling 

 of banks, and bombs. He suggests at the end of his letter that the sounds 

 are echoes which are audible over a limited area, very near the focus 

 in which the sound rays are more or less accurately concentrated. 



Mr. Waller has confined his attention more to the number of sounds 

 heard from day to day, and the hours at which they occurred. In the 

 official report sent by him to the Bengal Government, he has summarised 

 his observations and sent along with it a table containing the number 

 of sounds heard in his district, arranged according to the day and hour 

 they were heard. In the table, which extended from the middle of July 

 to about the end of August, the numbers are very large for four days 

 about the middle of August. More sounds were heard during those 

 days than all the other days together. In some of his letters sent to 

 the Society he reports that the guns were very numerous just before 

 the breaking of the monsoon on the 27th of June, and again on 14th 

 July. 



These three occasions of Mr. Waller's hearing an unusual number 

 of ' guns ' agree very closely with the occurrence of disturbed weather 

 at the head of the Bay, accompanied, as shown by the daily weather 

 report from the Mutla light ship, by a heavy swell and consequently 

 heavy breakers at the mouths of the rivers. It is also noticeable that 



