1845.] Fourteenth Memoir on the Law of Storms in India. 901 



NN. Westward with a head swell, studding sails set, noon increasing and 

 heavy head sea from NNE. and clear weather. 4 p.m. Observed the 

 Barometer to fall suddenly to 29*70: Sympiesometer 29 "3 2 : wind in- 

 creasing ; in small sails. At Midnight. Fresh gales and cloudy. 



5th December.— 6 a. m. Split fore and main-topsails: wind rapidly 

 increasing to a hard gale NW., and sea much agitated, rising in pyra- 

 mids* and breaking frequently on the ship, hove to on the larboard 

 tack, under mizen and fore-topmast staysails. Noon. Latitude 11° 42' 

 North : Longitude 71° 5' East. Barometer, noon 29*85, 4 p. m. 29*70. 

 Sympiesometer, noon 29'42, 4 p. m. 29*32. At 0*30. p. m. Wind 

 shifted to WSW. tremendous sea running, and ship labouring violently. 

 At 4 p. m. A heavy gust with rain, when the violence of the wind abated 

 during the night, the wind rising in heavy gusts, with intervals of 

 calm, a dark cloudy sky and drizzling rain. 



6th. — 4 a. m. Wind shifted to SE. and barometer "on the turn."f 

 At 6. Fresh gales with passing squalls : made sail and bore away 

 NNE., weather clearing up and sea rapidly going down. At 8. Single- 

 reefed topsails. Noon. Latitude 12° 32' North: Longitude 71° 43'. Baro- 

 meter, noon 29*70, 4 p. m. 29*60. Sympiesometer, noon 29*32, 4 p. m. 

 29.22. p. m. Steady breezes and showery, after which fine weather. 



Captain Stewart has further obliged me with the following very instruc- 

 tive Remarks. 



" 1 . On the evening of the 4th December, I observed a remarkable kind 

 of lightning to N. West ward, shooting up perpendicularly from the 

 horizon in stalks, or columns, of two and three, at short distances ; it 

 was not at all bright, but rather of a dullish glare. J 



" 2. My barometer fell lowest on Saturday, after the greatest violence 

 of the wind from NW. and SW. was past, which led me to expect that 



* A remarkable instance, but which doubtless often occurs without being noted, of 

 the pyramidal sea beginning very early in a gale : I account for it by supposing the 

 NN. Easterly sea crossed and broken by the N. Westerly gale. 



t It appears by this expression to have been lower than '29*70, between 4 p. M. of 

 the 5th and 4 a. m. of the 6th, but is not, unfortunately, registered. 



X This is almost, word for word, Capt. Rundle's description of this remarkable kind 

 of lightning. See 11th Memoir, Journal Asiatic Society, Vol. XLV, p. 71, where I have 

 also quoted another instance of it. We might almost term it " Tyfoon lightning !" 



6 D 



