530 A Twenty-third Memoir on the Law of Storms. [No. 6, 



" The only point which this statement may be found perhaps usefully 

 to illustrate is this, that the gale or Cyclone took 24 hours to come from 

 Kedgeree to Chittagong. The Precursor had it on the night of Wednesday, 

 we had it on the night of Thursday." 



Extract of a letter from E. C raster, Esq. Acting Collector of Chit- 



tagong. 



" The weather for some days previous to the 23rd Oct. had been gloomy 

 and threatening with occasional falls of rain, not, however, in any great 

 quantity, the Southern horizon in particular continuing overcast with a 

 mass of heavy leaden-coloured clouds ; and men of experience on the 

 coast predicted the occurrence of a gale, fixing the probable period as about 

 that of the change of the moon. 



On Thursday the 23rd Oct. the wind blew pretty fresh throughout the 

 day from the Southward, gradually increasing as the evening closed in, rain 

 also fell occasionally, but more in the form of driving mist, than that of 

 actual rain. 



About 10 p. m. the wind freshened up suddenly from about S. E. by 

 South, and at that point the gale commenced, accompanied with a heavy 

 fall of rain ; it continued increasing in violence until about 2 a. m. ; when 

 it appeared to have attained its height, the direction of the wind gradually 

 changing from the point at which the gale commenced, and drawing round 

 by South towards West, from which last quarter it was blowing hard at 7 

 a. m. ; after this time the gale abated ; a moderate breeze from the North- 

 West continuiug throughout the day. The quantity of rain which fell 

 during the gale was 3 inches 23 cent. 7 ' 



In a subsequent letter, in reply to some enquiries, Mr. Craster 

 informs me that the Master Attendant's Barometers were at about 

 29.50. And he confirms also the foregoing accounts of the devasta- 

 tions occasioned by the high tide (Storm Wave ?) along the Eastern 

 shore of the Burrampooter ; he says that three hundred persons and 

 thousands of cattle are reported to have been drowned. 



I now give for the purposes of ready comparison as usual, the 

 comparative table of winds and weather with the different vessels 

 and at the shore stations. 



