100 Babu Gaurdas Bysack — Oti the Barisdl Guns. [March, 



heard at Rajpur near the Sonarpnr Railway Station (E. B. S. Railway) 

 a few miles south of Calcutta." 



It is necessary, with a view to see that all the facts already ascer- 

 tained are correctly placed in their true light, and beyond the possi- 

 bility of a doubt or dispute, that I should refer to one or two points in 

 Mr. Mittra's answers, and also in the lucid summary of our President. 



Mr. Mittra observed that he never heard these sounds during the 

 cold weather. This qualifies the remark I made in my first paper on 

 the Antiquities of Bagerhat, that at that station the sounds are heard at 

 all times of the year. I did not carefully specify the periods when these 

 sounds are most frequent, but generally stated that they occur most 

 distinctly during a lull after a storm, or after a heavy shower of rain. 

 It was not noticed by me that they were heard before a shower. It is 

 certain that they do not occur after every shower of rain. I know 

 from personal experience that at Barisal these sounds are very common, 

 as common as they are at Bagirhat, but the fact recorded by me that, 

 though the sounds are heard at Bagirhat they are not heard at places 

 near there, nor in other parts of the Sunderbunds equally distant from 

 the shores of the Bay, and where the surf is violent, might, I suspect, 

 be open to correction. It may be accounted for in this way, that 

 during the cold weather, November to February, I used to be absent 

 from the Station and moving about (on tour) in the interior of the 

 Subdivision, and the reason why I did not hear the sounds at the 

 places I encamped, is because they did not occur at all. Having been 

 familiar with the noise during nine months of the year at Bagirhat, it 

 was but natural that the impression left on my mind was that it is 

 heard at all times of the year, but this, as well as the fact of its being 

 altogether inaudible during the cold weather in all parts of the two 

 districts in question, should be tested by due inquiry and accurate ob- 

 servation before they are accepted or rejected for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining the cause of the phenomenon. 



I was hitherto under the impression that the sound is not audible 

 at Khulna, as it was never noticed by me although my stay there ex- 

 tended over 9 months (May to December) in 1863, and 17 months in 

 1869-70 : but I observe that it is and has been heard there. My friend 

 Babu Bunkim Chunder Chatterjee, who was in charge of the Subdi- 

 vision for several years, writes me to say, 



" Rainey is right after all. I remember very well that I used to hear 

 the Barisaul guns while at Khulna. I also remember that they were 

 audible at various places within the Subdivision further east. I dis- 

 tinctly remember that I heard them on one occasion while encamped at 

 Tala on the Kapataka. I have always thought the only possible way 



