1843.] Ninth Memoir on the Law of Storms in India. 809 



3rd to 10 a. m. of the same day, is 4 hours of time between Cuttack 

 and Purulia. The first interval, of 16 hours, with the distance 290 

 miles, gives about 19 miles an hour for the rate of travelling; and the 

 second interval of 4 hours with 250 miles of distance, gives 62 miles 

 an hour! It seems then, that as far as time and distance go, taking 

 into account the retardation which sea storms experience when they 

 reach the land, it is more probable, or rather it is quite possible, that 

 the Purulia gale may have been the Pooree hurricane, and that there 

 is no possibility or probability that the Cuttack storm was so, for we 

 know of no rate approaching to 62 miles per hour. All this is, however, 

 but vague and unsatisfactory, but I am unwilling to leave any thing 

 unexamined. We have seen so frequently instances of storms either 

 forcing their way far inland, or being apparently lifted up by high 

 lands and renewing themselves again at considerable distances, that 

 we can only venture to state and weigh the probabilities without 

 pronouncing dogmatically upon the connexion or non-connexion of 

 the various storms when they appear to have some relationship. 

 There are, however, two more circumstances to be stated, which must 

 not be omitted, the one is that the retardation is in favour of the pro- 

 bability, that the storms were the same; and the other, that we may 

 easily suppose the Pooree storm to have been turned off to the North- 

 ward by the ranges of hills behind that station. Mr. Bond's report 

 from Balasore it will be seen distinctly points out the spur of the 

 Balasore Neelghiris at Choramon, as the dividing line between the 

 heavy storm at Pooree and the breeze at Balasore, Choramon being 

 about 100 miles N. W. of Pooree and 60 N. W. of Cuttack, with the 

 great valley of the Mahanuddee river between them ; and vallies seem 

 certainly to influence in various ways the tracks of storms. 



We have next to attend to the reports from the various stations 

 to the Northward and Westward of Purulia; viz. Gya, Patna, Pus- 

 sewa and Allahabad, at which it is clear, that they had parts of, and 

 at Patna the centre of a rotatory storm passing on the 6th and 7th. 

 The first question which naturally occurs is again the same which 

 we have already discussed, " Was this the same storm as that at 

 Pooree or a different one f I find it difficult to pronounce whether it 

 was or was not, from the absence of documents by which it might be 

 traced between Pooree and Gya. At Purulia indeed, there was cer- 



