106 Lt.-Col. J. Watcrliouse— On tlie Barisdl Guns. [March, 



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

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

 the shores of the Bay and where the surf is equally violent. 



In the ' Proceedings ' of the Society, for August 1870, Mr, Rainey 

 records that these sounds are heard as far north as Faridpur on the 

 Padda River, about 104 miles from the nearest point of the sea coast at 

 the mouth of the Tetulia river. 



Mr, Dall also heard of them occurring at Farldpur, like discharges 

 of artillery 3 or 4 miles away and loud enough to wake a person from 

 sleep. 



Captain Stewart writes that his assistant, Mr. N. T. Davey, con- 

 stantly heard them in District Hughli, as well as at Faridpur. 



Again, in the ' Proceedings ' for November 1870, Mr. Pellew records 

 their occurrence on the Saplenga river in the Sundarbuns, about 30 

 miles from the coast. They were loud enough to wake him up and were 

 heard on 4 or 5 different occasions the same night. The sound came 

 from the south and could not have been marriage guns because the 

 country to the south was all forest. 



He also mentions that at Piirl, when the S. W. Monsoon has lulled, 

 he has seen far to the south a very lofty wave break with a distinct 

 booming noise, a second or two after another nearer, then one opposite to 

 him, and then others towards the north as far as one could see. " Even 

 to one standing on the beach, the noise of these waves (except the 

 nearest) was so like that of guns that we used to remark on the resem- 

 blance." When the wind was blowing strongly the wave was turned 

 over by the force of it, before it attained its full height ; but when there 

 was no wind or a slight breeze from the shore, whilst the swell was still 

 high from the effect of the monsoon, this phenomenon often occurred, 

 the wave rising to an immense height and breaking over a mile or two 

 of beach at one moment. He contends also that to a person close by the 

 sound of each wave would appear continuous ; but to a person 40 or 50 

 miles away it would be a boom like that of a gun. He further remarks 

 that the wind blows very obliquely at Purl and would not take the 

 sound so far inland as at Bakarganj. 



In the same ' Proceedings ' Mr. Rainey records that the direction of 

 the sounds appears to travel invariably along the course of the streams 

 that discharge themselves into the Bay, and that when he was living at 

 Khulna, which is at the confluence of the rivers Rupsa and Bhoirab, 

 he noticed that the sounds came from the S. E., while when he lived on 

 the other side of the Rupsa, on the west side of it, the noises were heard 

 from the S. W. Again he lived at a place called Nali — or Schillerganj, on 

 the Baleswar river and to the east of it, when the detonations were 



