INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 297 



India -were entirely suspended for three weeks or more, and even up 

 10 August they were somewhat defective in the Punjab. But the 

 conditions there existing did not operate throughout the whole of 

 the monsoon and the latter months brought abundant rain. Nothing 

 was said in the forecast respecting the deficiency of tbe Bengal 

 rainfall in the latter part of the season, nor that of the Deccan 

 and Camatic. The causes of that deficiency were obscure, and, 

 therefore, reserved for future investigation. 



On the 26th July 1884, heavy floods occurred in the rivers Tapti 

 and Narbada, which resulted in the submergence of a portion of 

 the city of Surat. These were followed on the 31st by the flooding 

 of the Subarmati, Mahi, and neighbouring rivers which discharge 

 into the gulf of Cambay, causing serious breaching of the Bombay 

 and Baroda Railway. Again, on the 3rd September, the same rivers 

 were in flood with like disastrous consequences. All these floods, 

 and also a flood which occurred in September 1882, were the 

 consequences of small cyclones of the south-west monsoon type, 

 which either travelled to Western India from Bengal or the Central 

 Provinces, or in the last instance had travelled up the west coast at 

 the end of August. It was accordingly arranged that the super- 

 intendents of observatories situated near the head waters of the 

 Tapti and Narbada should be instructed that in the event of the 

 rainfall exceeding 3 inches in the 24 hours an urgent telegram 

 should be sent to certain Bombay officers, and also that premonitory 

 warnings should be sent from the Simla, giving notice of the 

 approach of a storm to the Central Provinces, Central India, and 

 Gujrat. At the same time the Meteorological Reporter from 

 "Western India was requested to take up the question of the floods 

 and investigate the circumstances attending their origin, with a view 

 to the greater efficiency of the system. 



An important addition was made during the year under review 

 by Mr. J. Eliot to his previous admirable work on the law of storms. 

 Taking as his basis the daily weather charts of India, drawn up in 

 the office since 1877, he took out the track of every storm generated 

 over the Bay of Bengal between the months of May and December, 

 during the five years 1877-81 (46 in all), and discussed them in a 

 memoir of 216 quarto pages, illustrated by seven plates, issued as 

 Part IV. of Vol. II. of the Indian Meteorological Memoirs. 



In regard to marine meteorology, Mr. Dallas completed, during 

 1884-85, the set of monthly charts showing the distribution of 

 barometric pressure, the prevalent winds, and marine currents of the 



