1855.] A Twenty-fourth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 397 



A Twenty-fourth Memoir on the Law of Storms, heing the Calcutta 

 and Sunderbund Cyclone of 14ith and 15th May, 1852. — By 

 Henry Piddington, President of Marine Courts. 



I have named this the Sunderbund Cyclone, because it is a 

 remarkable instance of a Cyclone passing up through the Sunder- 

 bunds, thirty-nine miles to the East of Calcutta, where its fury was 

 terrific, and because of our having fortunately been able to obtain 

 through the Logs of two inland Steamers, and the notes of a gen- 

 tleman residing at a Salt Agency on the verge of the Sunderbunds 

 excellent data for its track there ; while farther to the Northward 

 through Jessore°and Bogorah into Assam, very good notes also 

 enable us to follow it to its termination, probably into the moun- 

 tains of Bootan. The Sunderbund documents are by far the most 

 wonderful and interesting accounts of what occurs at the centre of 

 a Cyclone of any yet published, and with the report from Cuttack, 

 copied from the Bombay Times go far to establish my theory of the 

 Electric origin of these wonderful meteors. 



Beginning with the observations from the Southward, we have 

 the following : 



At Madras. 



Capt. Biden on the 11th May, in a newspaper notice addressed 

 to the Editor of the Madras Circulator, after commenting generally 

 on the uncertain state of the weather at the times of the change 

 of the Monsoon, and the perilous state of the shipping in Madras 

 Roads when gales or Cyclones suddenly set in, says: — 



"A severe gust of wind between 2 and 3 a. m. this day from 

 N. W. to N. N. E,, with lightning .from the N. E. together with an 

 irregular action of the Barometer, shews the necessity of the ship- 

 ping being well prepared to encounter bad weather ; fortunately the 

 sea was smooth, and the Ships and Native Craft held fast, but such 

 a sudden change, and from so suspicious a quarter, should serve as a 

 warning. 



" The Barometer has been very unsteady within the last forty- 

 eight hours, and it fell yesterday from 29° 87' at 8 a. m., to 29° 76. 

 at 4 p. M., and this morning I learn from the Observatory that the 



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