10 F. Chambers — Bpj^^y ^o Criticisms. ['^AN., 



remains that there is some probability in favour of the track laid down 

 in the American Chart for February 1878, and certainty is not claimed 

 for it either by myself or the Chartographer. There is this to be said, 

 however, in favour of the American charts of Indian storm tracks, that, 

 with all their want of accuracy of detail, they are the publications which, 

 as far as I am aware, first brought to light the fact of the eastward 

 motion of the winter storms of Northern India, a fact which later in- 

 vestigation has fully confirmed. I cannot admit, however, that the 

 storm of the 11th to 13th November 1881 affords clear evidence of a 

 breach of the continuity of a storm track, and the assertion that the 

 storm of the 11th to 13th July 1881 was independent of that of the 

 2nd to 6th July requires proof. All the facts of the November case 

 seem to me to accord far better with the simpler supposition, that the 

 opposing friction of the land surface merely produced a temporary di- 

 minution of the intensity of the storm ; and the July instance may 

 possibly be one of the same kind. It is clear that the latter storm did 

 not originate in Gujarat, but travelled from the Malwa plateau into 

 Cutch and Lower Sind, increasing in intensity as it passed into the 

 plain below, and onward towards the Arabian Sea. In both the above 

 cases Mr. Blanford appears to me to have mistaken the rapid develop- 

 ment of a feeble cyclone, previously in existence, for the birth of a new 

 and independent vortex. The distinction may appear to be of little 

 consequence, but it has a very important bearing on the administration 

 of the Bombay storm warning service. The fact, that this question is 

 one on which widely different opinions are held, is a proof that further 

 discussion is needed, but to deal with the matter satisfactorily would 

 require the whole of a separate paper, and I must now defer the further 

 consideration of it. 



With regard to Mr. Eliot's remarks, I would merely point out that 

 the side issue mentioned in my note had reference to the original ques- 

 tion, raised in my letter to " Nature," as to whether the winter rains 

 were to be ascribed to cyclonic disturbances or to the upper anti-monsoon 

 current. It did not refer to the question as to where the winter storms 

 originate. The latter question is obviously a side issue of the former, 

 but I quite agree with Mr. Eliot in regarding it as a legitimate subject 

 for further inquiry, although it may be of secondary importance to the 

 investigation of the conditions, which give rise to the continued exis- 

 tence and eastward motion of the winter cyclones. One practical con- 

 clusion from the whole discussion seems to me to be that more informa- 

 tion is required from regions to the westward of India. Waiting for 

 this information, however, can hardly be considered the best way of 

 obtaining it. 



