1833. ] Extraordinary Fall of the Barometer. 427 
from being the case.” It is really deplorable the manner in which 
natural history has been neglected in India: and justly has it been 
remarked that we know more of the animals of Africa than of Bengal, 
a country that has been so long in our possession ! France created 
her magnificent work on Egypt and its productions during a warlike 
occupancy of afew months: England after a peaceable possession of 
India of many times the number of years, has not, under the patronage 
of her Government, done enough to fill a single volume. J. T. P. 
V.—wNote on the extraordinary Fall of the Barometer during the Gale of 
the 21st May last.—By Jas. Prinsep, Sec. &c. . 
In the meteorological register for May I noticed the great fall in the 
Barometer which took place previous to and during the severe gale that 
did so much damage at the mouth of the river Hooghly : I have 
since been favored with an extract from the register of the barometer 
kept on board the H. C. Ship Duke of York, one of the numerous 
vessels wrecked or stranded along the Hijelee coast. This ship lay 
apparently in the line of greatest force of the gale, and the de- 
pression experienced in the barometer, confirmed as it is by the indi- 
cations of a sympiesometer also on board, give us a terrible proof of 
the intensity of the storm: the fall in Calcutta was three-quarters of 
an inch ; at Saugor it appears by the following note, for the authenti- 
city of which I can vouch, to have been upwards of two inches ! 
«* My dear Sir, 
** It is but now that Iam able to forward you the particulars of the fall of the 
mercury during the late gale. They are as follow :— 
inch. Ther. 
Tuesday, 21st May, 1833, 8 a.m. The Barometer stood at,....... 29.09 80 
on NSN 2 WE RA Sab oo AO OOMD BID AE 28.67 805 
ROM ew, ae eeteree.s seheotsiats sere Meeheics eLOLOO 80 
11,4, ~no mercury in sight in the tube*, 26.30 80 
11.30,, mercury re-appeared,............ 26.50 80 
Nog! 2 5 Fe ee tees AR a RT 795 
APM oisiadiets, x sive days pais tsleusiel scale iol abelian cia) x - 27.00 79 
Sabissiiatalcisa elo Glersiel sieiathe exeicieieNeiererd sisiste tir 28.00 80 
Midnightsyiccs.. \ss0 sbi ws s A SRSA 3 | era 28.60 805 
WSMCRAAY 220s .cy AAW Ma, orem oo cece yo secrete access os cens  2ara0 81 
Ole sp Miss cto ce siete. ele Satan aha shel steric tre 28.30 82 
PAGE Seatac othiewtteels cieloue tis emcee ot 28.60 84 
“The times of the changes are copied from those set down almost immediately 
after the gale, of course from recollection. Some of the lower altitudes of the 
mercury, also, may be more or less incorrect, having been below the range of 
the index. 
“‘ The oil in the sympiesometer retired completely into the bulb when the mer- 
cury in the barometer disappeared, and rose again a little before it, The mer- 
* We presume this must have been below 26.50 inches.—Ep. 
