206 Report on Barisdl Guns. [Aug. 



my house stands, told me he had heard none this year. They were heard, 

 however, at Satkhira, generally in the morning and evening and at quite 

 irregular intervals, and from the east and south-east, and usually while 

 there was light rain falling after a clear sky the previous day. The 

 Municipal Chairman there says he has heard them at Ranaghat in 

 Nuddea, and that Hindu children are taught that the sounds are the 

 opening of the gates of Ravan, king of Lanka. 



My own impression is, that the sounds are undoubtedly atmos- 

 pheric, and caused by some meteorological phenomena resulting from the 

 approach of banks of warm vapour from the Bay of Bengal towards 

 the land, and possibly to -their meeting with a cold air current from the 

 north. 



Extract from a letter written by A. Man son, Esq. 



I have heard them at Dacca, in the ISToakhali district, on the Meghna, 

 and going through the Sundarbans on one of the Assam steamers, but 

 it is all so long ago that I cannot trust my memory for exact particulars. 



I. In Dacca it was in August — October 1875 at night. 



II. On the Meghna in October 1875 during the last 4 or 5 days of 

 the month as I was travelling down from Dacca to Noakhali by native 

 boat : and III, afterwards in 1878-79 in some parts of Noakhali district, 

 I cannot say exactly where, nor what time, but I think in the cold weather. 



IV. Going through the Sundarbans by steamer from Calcutta to 

 Goalando during the last few days of October 1876 I heard them at 

 Barhaisal itself, and some other occasions I had much talk about them 

 with the steamer Captain, this time (at Barhaisal) it was in the evening, 

 about sunset I think, and the day before the great cyclone which drowned 

 out Soondeep &c, tide about at the full I remember. On that occasion I 

 thought the sounds were possibly native fire-works, " bans " — but the 

 Captain was convinced they were the genuine " guns." I may say that 

 every time and place where I have heard them there has always been 

 the possibility of native bombs. I have been a good deal about the 

 Meghna in boats and along this sea coast, and can testify that natives 

 are perpetually firing off these ' bans ' at all hours of the day and night. 

 A large joint of bamboo rammed with some pounds of powder, or some- 

 times a stout earthenware bombshell, is buried in the ground, rammed 

 tight and fired with a fuse just for the sake of the noise, but it is mostly 

 done when crops are reaped and the ground is dry, December to June. 

 The " Guns " are not at all like one of these bombs when heard within a 

 couple of miles, for I know the bombs very well. The " Guns " are more 

 of a dull roar with a reverberation, like a blast in a quarry amongst the 

 hills, or a heavy gun some miles off. I cannot tell the direction of the 



