460 Notes about Winds, Storms fyc. in Thibet. [No. 6. 



hours afternoon, on the second day it began to decline. It blew from 

 the west and south-west." Tame animals are often killed in these 

 storms. The wind destroys their eyes, and they lie down to die. The 

 Kiang wild ass seems to resist their effects better than other wild ani- 

 mals, many of which are often found dead after they subside. There 

 is no thunder or lightning either before, during, or after the greatest 

 winter storms. In the lighter ones which occur in April and May, 

 there is occasionally some thunder ; but thunder is rare in Thibet. 

 Storms are most violent in mountain passes ; but in the open places they 

 are very bad also. They are most violent in the district of Dingcham, 

 less so in the Province of Chang, least so in " U" or " Oo" — indeed 

 at Lassa, the capital of Province U, storms are very rare. No volca- 

 noes are known in eastern Thibet, nor are there any other phenomena 

 referred to, as accompanying the storms. The district of Kampa, a 

 portion of which lies between the Provinces of " Chang" and " U," is 

 next to Dingcham for storms, and the " Karoola" range which divides 

 these two Provinces and is crossed on the road to Lassa, is the worst 

 and most dangerous place for storms in all Thibet ; but it is not so bad 

 as the Dawkia, or Tunkala passes of the Himalaya, where the snow 

 falls much faster and heavier than on any Thibetan mountains. 



A. Campbell. 



Note by Mr. Piddington. 



This note of Dr. Campbell's is of very great interest, affording us, as it does, a 

 fair field for surmise that the inland storms of Thibet, and probably therefore 

 those of Tartary and Siberia, may be, as conjectured, parts of revolving storms. 



For if we take the Northern boundary of the Chang country (called Z'Zang in a 

 French Atlas of 1840 before me) to be in about Lat 31° North, a revolving storm 

 of which the centre was passing between 31° and 35°, or more North, would give 

 Westerly gales to the whole district of Chang, and if these began at W. S. W. and 

 veered to West and W T . N. W. then the track would be from the Westward to the 

 Eastward. If however we take the Bhotia's description to have literally and 

 exactly given the veering of the wind " from the West and South West" then the 

 course of that storm was from the E. N. E. to the W. S. W. Its great duration 

 was owing to its slow motion or to its extent. The Bhotia's statement that the 

 " Babink" or violent storm or whirlwind, u is generally preceded by a noise 

 resembling the clatter of galloping horses which intermits," fantastic as it at first 

 sight appears to us, is exactly in other words the Chinese fisherman's atmospheric 

 warning noises as described by Dr. Morrison, and quoted by me.* " Slight noises 

 heard at intervals a few days before, wheeling round and stopping quick, and also a 

 thick muddy atmosphere," and with allowance for the difference between the open 

 atmosphere of the sea and the mountain ranges of Thibet, the " distinct roar of the 

 elements, as of winds rushing through a hollow vault" described by Mr. Gittens of 

 Barbadoes, and quoted in Col. Reid's work, and probably also the M moaning noise" 

 which has been several times very distinctly heard and noticed by good observers at 

 Calcutta, in the Phillippiues, at Baticolo and in the Southern Indian Ocean on the 

 approach of a Cyclone. 



* Sailor's Horn Book, p. 245, 2nd Ed. 



