JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. V.— 1850. 



A Nineteenth Memoir on the Law of Storms in the Indian and China 

 Seas, being the Cyclones of the Sir Howard Douglas and of H. M. 

 Brig Jumna in the Southern Indian Ocean. January to April, 1848. 

 By Henry Piddington, President of Marine Courts. 



The Cyclones forming the subject of this Memoir are of special 

 Merest, as they occurred in the Storm Tract to which I have so often 

 drawn the attention of navigators in the Eastern Seas, and the docu- 

 ments collected afford us good and tolerable data for the tracks. For 

 the documents of the Sir Howard Douglas* Cyclone, I am principally 

 indebted to Capt. Twynham, P. and O. Steam Navigation Company's 

 Agent at Point DeGalle, and to J. Stuart, Esq., of Bombay. But on 

 the other hand it should be stated that though subsequent to the 

 Jumna's Cyclone there were at one time eighteen dismasted or cargo - 

 damaged ships lying in the harbour of Port Louis, in the Mauritius, a 

 Captain of one of them who was most zealously desirous of obtaining in- 

 formation for me and applied personally to every one of the Masters, 

 could pnly obtain one or two Logs ! and this is to be the more regretted 

 as this Cyclone it will be seen throws a new light on the science, and is 

 moreover peculiarly instructive for that dangerous tract of the ocean. 



PART I. 

 The Sir Howard Douglas' Cyclone. 

 Extract from the Log of the Barque Isabella Blyth from Calcutta 

 towards London. — From Capt. H. P. Baylis, Ship time. 

 Thursday, \^th January, 1848. — Noon. The N. W. monsoon experienced the 

 last few days getting very light and variable, as though we should soon lose it. 

 Bar. 29.92 ; Simp. 29.75 ; at which they have stood for some days. 



Noon. 



Lat 8° 4' south. 



Long, by Chron 89<> 07' E. 



Do. Lunars 89° 03'. 



No. XLI. — New Series. 2 z 



