1888.] Babu Gaurdas Bysack— <0w the Barisdl Guns. 97 



b, Bddshdh Ghdzi type, dates: 1146, 16 — 113*, 



5 — do.— Mint: Akbarabad 3 



Total ... 11 



3. They are not in a state of p^ood preservation, and belong to 

 very common types. Their value is R. 1 each. 



The Philological Secretary read the following note from Mr. V. A. 

 Smith regarding a paper on the Gupta coinages, on which he is engaged : 



" Mr. V. A. Smith is engaged in preparing a paper on the silver and 

 copper Gupta coinages, with supplementary notes on the gold coinage, 

 and will be much obliged for any information on the subject with which 

 he may be favoured. Details of the weight and find-spots of coins will 

 be especially welcome. Mr. Smith believes that the Gupta copper coins 

 are not so rare as has been supposed, and that many of them probably 

 exist in private collections. Until November 1888 Mr. V. A. Smith's 

 address will be " Care of Messrs. Wm. Watson & Co., 27 Leadenhall 

 Street, London, E. C." " 



The following papers were read — 



1. On the Barisdl Guns. — By Babu Gaurdas Btsack (postponed 

 from last meeting.) 



I need scarcely make an apology for reverting to the subject of the 

 physical phenomenon known as the Barisal Guns, a subject too impor- 

 tant and too interesting to be lost sight of, or buried in oblivion. My 

 object in doing so, is to place on record certain facts that have come to 

 my notice since the subject was, for the first time I believe, broached at 

 your meeting in 1867, (vide my paper on the Antiquities of Bagirhat 

 published in Part I of the Journal for 1867, Vol. XXXVI), and to ask 

 you not only to invite the attention of all learned scientific gentlemen, 

 but to organise a system of enquiry and observation with a viev/ to 

 arrive at a solution of the problem. 



You are already aware that the sounds resemble the booming of 

 distant cannonade, and that they are usually heard during the months 

 from April to September in a lull after a squall, or after a shower of 

 rain, or when the clouds begin to break np. Barisal Guns they are 

 called because at Barisal the explosions happened to be first noticed, 

 but the area is vast over which such noises are heard. They are heard as 

 high up as at Fureedpur and all over the south of Backergunj and Jessore 

 (now Khulna) specially in the neighbourhood of the Baleswar river. 



Recent facts that have come to my knowledge shew that other 

 places than those enumerated above are wont to enjoy the honor of 

 these mysterious salutes. 



