42 Papevfi. [Marcft, 1904.) 



vations ; that; at sea as on land where recurving is associated with 

 striking differences in rainfall distribution, the phenomenon is probably 

 connected with the character of the upper strata of the atmosphere. 

 Quotations are given from the Indian Daily Weather Reviews, in which 

 the statements are based strictly on the system introduced by Sir 

 J. Eliot, to show that a very inadequte appreciation of the character of 

 the storm was possible on that system, and that any warning which 

 could have been issued from Simla must have been of a general and ill- 

 defined character. The discussion shows that a failure to avoid the central 

 area of a cyclone cannot, in the present state of our knowledge, be provided 

 against by rules, and that until meteorologists have accounted for recurv- 

 ing the " full intelligence " of the mariner cannot be made a matter of 

 question, as appears to be the case on the front page of the Handbook. 

 It is incidentally pointed out that wireless telegraphy is not likely to 

 be an aid in storm warning, as experience has shown that it cannot be 

 relied on when thunder is occurring — an invariable accompaniment of 

 cyclonic weather in the Bay. American Meteorologists have tried it and 

 have given it up. They are now going on laying cables between the main- 

 land and islands a short distance from the coast. The Telegraph 

 Department in India have stated in their last administration report 

 that wireless telegraphy fails when the the atmosphere is electrically 

 disturbed. The only apparent method of investigation is that suggested 

 by Mr. Blanford more than twenty years ago, a suggestion of enquiry 

 into the upper strata which is now the main line of investigation carried 

 on by the United States Weather Bureau, and a method of enquiry for 

 which the area comprising Lower Bengal and the North of the Bay 

 gives every prospect of success. 



