208 Report on Barisal Guns. [Aug. 



found out he was right ; every musket shot was a distinct thump— the 

 wind was from them to me. 



I have often heard the distant thunder over the sea both here and at 

 Pooree, where I lived within 100 yards of the sea for 2| years, it might 

 easily be taken for a Barhisal " gun" sometimes. I have also often heard 

 and watched the booming of the sea rollers which Mr. Pellew speaks of 

 both at Pooree and here, and in the mouth of the Meghna once about 

 Hatia island. At Pooree one sees this to perfection about October— and 

 I have no doubt the sound of one of these toppling rollers would echo 

 up the Meghna every bit as loud as the falling bank does. The sea is 

 smooth, and a long wave which looks as if it were one unbroken line for 

 miles rolls up on the outer surf bank, rising higher and higher till one 

 can see the light through it. I suppose 10 or 12 feet high it must be 

 and it falls over with a grand roar — but sometimes part of the wave 

 breaks too soon in two or three places, or outruns the main line, and 

 then the fall of the water becomes irregular, and there is a series of 

 sharp explosions because the higher parts of the broken line of wave not 

 only fall forward but fall inward, i. e., two faces of water slap together, 

 it is not easy to describe but the wave instead of falling over evenly all 

 along the line, seems to run' up to a peak and explode in one place, then 

 again in another place and so on. This sort of noise would make a 

 very good echo. At page 8 of the pamphlet by Col. Waterhouse T see 4 

 mistake is made by Mr. Rainey there quoted concerning an " activ. 

 canic train " which is supposed to run up and down this coast. There 

 is nothing volcanic anywhere near, but no doubt Mr. Rainey is thinking 

 of the burning springs in Sitakund range and the so-called "Mud 

 Volcanoes " of Ramree and Cheduba. These are nothing but escapes 

 of marsh gas —the whole country for hundreds of miles is water-formed, 

 recent alluvial clay shale and such like— and full of marsh gas. I have 

 seen the Jack-o-lantern in Chittagong town itself, and you may often see 

 bubbles come up in the swimming tank. In the marshes, which they 

 call here "do/a" and in Sylhet they call " hawar," there are explosions 

 heard sometimes which are very likely sudden jets of marsh gas (or 

 rather the echo of such a belch) when the air is still— and that gives 

 rise to a suggestion ; is it not possible that where two currents run 

 together and form a shoal in the glue-like mud which we have in these 

 rivers, all the gas it contains may be pressed together and form a sort 

 of bubble under the shoal ? Sometimes the top of a mud bank is caked 

 and cracked by the sun while a foot or two below it is semifluid like 

 custard. I know that cavities form in some of these— possibly by the 

 underpart running out in an extra low tide— for the Kutubdia embank- 

 ments sometimes sink and show such a hole as one might bury an ele- 



