1842.] Fifth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 21 



broken up by the time it reached Royacottah and Bangalore, being des- 

 cribed only as a gale at the first place, and of short duration, and as a 

 " very high wind" at the latter ; and as no damage done by it is men- 

 tioned, we may suppose it not to have been very severe ? Its centre, if we 

 suppose it to have had one at that time, and to have travelled on the 

 same line, would have passed about 85 miles to the North of Royacottah, 

 and about 50 miles to the North of Bangalore. When we reflect that 

 there is a series of stations in this WNW. line from Madras across 

 to Darwar on the Eastern side of the great chain of the Western 

 Ghauts, and to Rutnagherry on the Malabar Coast, it is not creditable 

 to our brother sojourners in Southern India that not a single report 

 has reached Government if the storm extended beyond Bangalore 

 inland. One of the most curious points of research yet to be inves- 

 tigated is this of knowing where, and how, these great whirlwinds dis- 

 perse ; and we might here perhaps have had an instance of a storm being 

 lifted upwards and re-descending when it had passed the barrier of the 

 Ghauts and table land. As things are, we must be content with what 

 we have, and with having, through Captain Biden's zealous assistance, 

 traced out this first of the Madras storms as clearly obeying the general 

 law as to rotation and progression ; and also as to what seems to be the 

 usual track of those of the Bay of Bengal. I cannot conclude without 

 earnestly requesting every person into whose hands this Memoir may 

 fall to set down in a few lines the following data, in any storm which 

 may occur, viz. 



1. Situation of the observer before, during, and after the storm. 



2. The direction of the winds as often as possible. 



3. The times of varyings and shif tings of the wind. 



4. The state of the Barometer, if any. 



5. Any electric or other phenomena. 



6. Any remarks and intelligence derived from other quarters. 



All this may be done in a very few lines, and the report from it will 

 not take more writing than a short letter. I presume that none are 

 now ignorant of the very great importance of these researches, and at 

 Madras the painful subject of my preceding Memoir, "The Golcon- 

 da's Storm," may have shewn most persons that, one day or other, they 

 may possibly have a personal interest in the full investigation of the 

 Theory of Storms. 



