848 Note to accompany Chart of the Bay of Bengal. [Aug. 



China Sea by myself; for without a knowledge of the average tracks 

 the problem of the management of a vessel becomes much more intri- 

 cate for the seaman ; since it is upon the track of the Storm (as upon 

 that of a pirate or enemy) that his manoeuvres must depend, and this 

 he must know or know how to calculate. Hence the importance of this 

 chart in a nautical point of view. 



There is one more relation in which I venture to present it, and that 

 is the following. If we produce by the eye or a ruler the various tracks 

 of the Storms backwards to the Eastward on the same line we shall 

 find them all tending as it were, to some focus of volcanic action now 

 in activity. Beginning from the South, the first set appear to come from 

 some of the numerous Sumatran Volcanoes or of the Volcanic islands 

 which fringe its coasts. The next set, and these are the most remark- 

 able, will mostly be found to arise about Barren Island, which is a Vol- 

 cano always in activity, and to run towards points between the West and 

 N. N. W., while a third, the Dacca and Kyook Phyoo hurricanes seem 

 traceable from the volcanic centres of Cheduba (or Chittagong.) 



It is difficult to say that these coincidences are not more than acci- 

 dental, but I shall best explain my general views on the subject by the 

 following, copied from my forth-coming work, p. 19, par. 33 : — 



" Other suggestions have been thrown out and instances adduced by differ- 

 ent writers as to the possibility of volcanoes, and even fires, originating vio- 

 lent circular motions of the atmosphere, and that volcanic eruptions are often 

 accompanied by violent storms and heavy falls of rain, there is no doubt. I 

 liave myself pointed out, though my published Researches have hitherto been 

 confined like those of Redfield and Reid to the effects, as the sure eventual 

 index to- guide us backward to the causes of Storms, that in the China Sea 

 and Bay of Bengal* there is much to countenance the idea that Storms in 

 some parts of the world may originate at great volcanic centres, and I am 

 inclined to believe also that their tracks are partly over the great internal 

 chasms of our globe, by which perhaps the volcanic centres and bands com- 

 municate with each other. If we produce at both ends the line of the track 

 of the great Cuba hurricane of 1844, we shall find that it extends from the 

 great and highly active volcano of Cosseguina on the Pacific shore of central 

 America to Hecla in Iceland ! and in 1821 the breaking out of the great volcano 

 of Eyafjeld Yokul in Iceland, which had been quiet since 1612, was followed 

 all over Europe by dreadful storms of wind, hail and rain. In Iceland the 



* Sixth Memoir, Storms of the China Sea, Journal Asiatic Society, Vol. XT. p. 717. 



