1849.] Eighteenth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 899 



that of the Futtle Rozack clearing it, we shall be satisfied that this 

 augmentation of velocity took place, and moreover, as the C oiling w 000V s 

 log may be quite depended upon, we may be assured also that our 

 estimate of the track, if not mathematically true, is so near to the truth 

 that none of the main facts can be doubted. 



Part III. 

 Remarks. 

 Under this head I propose to set down first, short disquisitions on 

 many points of great interest which have been elucidated in this 

 Cyclone, then to give a table of the ships, with remarks on their manage- 

 ment or errors, and finally to deduce, so far as we can safely do so, 

 some practical rules for ships approaching or leaving our dangerous 

 Sandheads at the Cyclone seasons. 



Signs of the approaching Cyclone. 

 Leaving out the swell, which at the head of the Bay at least may be 

 considered an equivocal indication, as the varying monsoons and the 

 heavy discharges of 200 miles of the channels forming the mouths of 

 the two great rivers, the Hooghly and the Burampooter, must often 

 affect it, we come next to, — 



The Banks of Clouds. 

 These are very distinctly noted in the logs of the Welleslei/, John 

 Hepburn and Futtle Rozack on the approaches of the Cyclone, and 

 are noted by others on its leaving them. They were no doubt seen by 

 more of the ships, though not registered at the time. There can be 

 no sort of question however, now, that Cyclones are frequently so seen,* 

 and they will be oftener noted when sailors learn what, in conjunction 

 with other signs, they may indicate. At present unless a peculiarly 



* A recent and a very remarkable instance has occurred to myself. During the 

 Chittagong Cyclone of May, 1849. I distinctly saw and watched for two days from 

 the terrace of my house in Calcutta, say at a height of 50 feet, or of a ship's 

 maintop, the bank of clouds moving from N. E. to S. E. and I was satisfied, from 

 this and other signs, together with the barometrical indications that it was a Cyclone 

 moving down from the N. E. corner of the Bay to the S. W. as it proved to be. 

 Chittagong is 220 miles W. | S. of Calcutta, and had I been at the time in command 

 of a ship bound to the Southward I should thus have had ample time to make all 

 snug, and to consider beforehand what my best plan of management would have been. 



