74 Col. Waterhonse — Bemarhs on the note hy Mr. McGarren. [April, 



It struck me, therefore, that the question might at any rate be 

 worth enquiring into, and as I found that the Arakan Oil Company's 

 works were established at Kyouk Phyoo, on the island of Ramri, I 

 asked my friend Mr. J. D. Maxwell, of Messrs. Kettle well, Bullen and 

 Co., the managing agents of the Company, to forward some questions 

 on the subject to Mr. W. McCarren the manager of the works. This 

 he kindly did, and I lately received the following note by Mr. McCarren, 

 from which it will be seen that although the gas explosions referred to 

 cannot possibly be the source of the sounds known as the Barisal Gruns, 

 the fact of similar sounds being heard on the Island as coming from the 

 west at the commencement and end of the monsoon is interesting, and 

 points to the sea as being in some way the place of origin of the sounds. 



It may also be remarked that Prof. Pedler has very kindly had 

 prepared for me some charts showing the direction of the winds at the 

 head of the Bay during the Monsoon months, and from these it would 

 appear that the winds are favourable to sounds being carried across 

 from the Ramri Islands to the Sunderbunds, supposing that they were 

 sufficiently loud. 



The further information Mr. McCarren has kindly promised will 

 be of interest, and the Society is much indebted to him for the trouble 

 he has taken in the matter. 



Note ly Mr. W. McCarren. 



1. Do explosions of gas occur from the mud volcanoes or from 

 the petroleum wells in the islands of Ramri, Cheduba and the Bor- 

 ongas ? 



Explosions of gas occur from the mud volcanoes of Ramri and 

 Cheduba but not from the petroleum wells. 



2. If so, at what season of the year are they most frequent and 

 are they accompanied by much noise, loud enough to be heard at a 

 considerable distance ? 



There is only one volcano on these islands that has explosions of 

 gas accompanied with much noise and flame. This volcano is in 

 Cheduba and explodes once in every 6 to 8 months. I have heard the 

 sound (which was not very loud) of the explosion at Kyouk Phyoo 

 40 miles north of the volcano. I have made enquiries at Akyab 100 

 miles north of the volcano, no one living there (Akyab) that I could 

 find ever heard the sound of any explosion of the Cheduba volcano, 

 although numbers have seen the flames of the erruptions which generally 

 during the time (7 years) I have been here, have taken place at 

 night time. 



