11)03.] C. Little — On two remarkable rain-bursts in Bengal. 49 



monsoon is reduced to an enquiry why a cyclonic storm should move 

 from the Bay of Bengal in one direction at one time of the year, and 

 in another direction a week or two later ; why it may be for several 

 weeks at a time the prominent features of these storms are, more 

 especially as regards the line of advance, repeated with but little varia- 

 tion ; and why there should come without warning by ground level 

 instruments a marked change in the line of advance. 



In ordinary years cyclonic storms move westward, or slightly to the 

 north of west x from the beginning of the monsoon season, and while 

 they follow the usual direction there is no want of rain in any part of 

 Northern India. During the past five years cyclonic storms have been 

 very far from following the usual course, that is the course which the 

 previous fifteen or twenty years' experience had shown to be the usual 

 course. For instance, in 1899 the recurving was very marked, especially 

 in August and September ; and there being no ' remarkable series of 

 storms ' such as occurred during the past year, the crops failed over wide 

 areas in Western and Central India. Several storms developed in 1899 

 over the Bay at the most critical time, that is August, and began to 

 move westward ; but in every case their advance was checked over the 

 Central Provinces, and they recurved towards Bengal, where in conse- 

 quence rain fell in abundance. Contrast the past year with 1899, and 

 the main difference will be found in the behaviour of the cyclonic 

 storms in the latter part of August and the early part of September. 

 No one who is interested in crops and rainfall can have forgotten how 

 critical the condition had become in the west of India in August 1902 ; 

 and how it was a question of days whether or not there would be a 

 repetition of the disasters of 1899 ; and that just when it was not too 

 late the change came, and came with the first of that ' remarkable 

 series of storms ' which was in the west of the Bay on the 19th of 

 August and over the north-west dry area and Guzerat on the 22nd. 

 Two more storms followed the same course at intervals of about a week, 

 crossing the area of drought and giving plentiful rainfall where it was 

 most needed. 



The difference between the years 1899 and 1902 is that the storms 

 of the second-half of August and first part of September in former 

 1 In page 173 of the Hand- Book of Cyclonic Storms in the Bay of Bengal, 

 Second Edition, Sir John Eliot says regarding cyclonic storms in July : — " The charts 

 shew that all the 39 storms which formed in the Bay during this month, in the 

 period 1877-99, marched in west or west-north-west directions across the north -west 

 angle of the Bay ; and the centres of all with about six exceptions crossed the coast 

 between Saugor Island and Gopalpur. In the great majority of cases they after- 

 wards advanced across the head of the Peninsula into Sind, Guzerat or Raj- 

 putana. 



