1855.] A Twenty-fourth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 409 



threatening appearance in the shy to the East and E. N. E. during the 

 zvhole day. The Cyclone was evidently travelling np to N. 35L W., and 

 Calcutta would be nearest its centre, when the wind came about IN", by 

 E., when it must have raged furiously. The Barometer stood thus here : 

 Sunrise 29.420 ; 9 h. 50 m. a. m. 29.437 ; at Noon, 29.393 ; at 2 p. m. 

 29.371 ; at 4 a. m. 27.349, at which time it was at its lowest ebb, and from 

 which it gradually came round again to its accustomed height. The wind 

 was thus : sunrise 3\ by E. ; 9 h. 50 m. a. m. N. N. W. ; Noon N. W. ; 

 2 p. m. W. JN". W. ; 4 p. m. W. by N. ; when from that time, it came round 

 to S. of W., thus making a half circle round the compass in the 24 hours. 

 We had a very heavy thunderstorm here yesterday, in which I remarked 

 a curious phenomenon, which I never observed before. The Barometer 

 fell in the violent gusts of wind, and they were violent as you may 

 suppose when I tell you that trees of three feet in diameter were broken 

 in two at their lower and strongest part, and great branches of mango 

 trees in a tope not far distant, were torn off, and thrown to a distance 

 from their stem, and the rain, which came down actually in sheets 

 of water, was forced through the Venetians into my room although 

 they were closed and fastened at the time, and fell in a shower of spray 

 on the middle of the floor, wetting everything; the woodwork of the 

 Venetians was wetted outside and inside at once, and simultaneously, and 

 in sheets along the wood, as if the rain had violently driven through its 

 pores — the Venetians all the time never opened in the least, for I watched 

 them particularly, /J I also, when going outside to see the lightning, which 

 was so vivid as to make the deep darkness caused by the storm at once 

 lighten into the brightness of the day, so instantaneous and without inter- 

 mission, that flash followed flash, and peal upon peal, without a moment's 

 pause, was driven forcibly against the wall, and held there for some 

 moments by a pressure that I could not overcome with all my strength, 

 aud was quite exhausted when I got inside. As I was saying, the Baro- 

 meter fell in the gusts to the l-10th of an inch, and rose as suddenly to 

 within the same space. The Thermometer did the same, and it was 

 curious and beautiful to see how they came together at once without any 

 pause between them : twice they fell to two-tenths of an inch, and three 

 times to the one-twentieth, during the extreme violence of the wind, 

 which was as strong at the time as any hurricane, but fortunately only 

 lasted for half an hour with this extreme fury. The thunder was ushered 

 in by four peals which fell on the ear like cannon, with an astounding 

 crash, and the flash that followed was so white and dazzling that it quite 

 overpowered the light for a moment, and set one blinking like an owl 



