1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 249 



any given point a simultaneous sound preceded and followed by 

 silence, but the conditions necessary for it to produce that effect, 

 would render it impossible that its sound should be heard as a 

 simultaneous sound at any other point even slightly distant from 

 the first. 



The first step, as it seems to me, towards making any deduction 

 whatever as to the origin of the sounds, is one which might easily 

 be taken, and has not yet been taken, namely the investigation 

 whether the nights when the sounds are frequent at one place, are 

 the same as those in which they are frequent at another somewhat 

 distant place. From a few comparisons bearing on this point, we 

 could at least discover whether the cause was a general one, or 

 only a purely local one. 



Babu Kajendralala Mitra thought that though the surf theory 

 seemed to be viewed with great favor, it did not meet all the require- 

 ments of the case. There was no question that sound was audible 

 from great distances under particular conditions of the atmosphere ; 

 but it has yet to be shown how, in travelling, it undergoes such 

 transmutation, as to change the dull roaring of the surf into 

 distinct detached sounds of the booming of a gun, and how that 

 booming is heard eight or ten times successively, and then is fol- 

 lowed by a lull. Heavy surf, besides, was common wherever 

 the sea rolled over a low shelving beach, but it was not always fol- 

 lowed by the peculiar booming. If it be said that the estuaries 

 of the Delta favoured the transmission of sound, still the difficulty 

 would remain unexplained ; for the Deltas of the Irawati, the Ma- 

 hanaddi, the Danube, the Mississippi and the Amazon, had similar 

 estuaries, but they did not produce the u Barisal guns." At Puri, 

 too, they were never heard. Even at the base of the Gangetic 

 Delta, they were not common every where, but confined to one locali- 

 ty, and it was probable therefore that some other agency was at 

 work besides the surf to produce them. 



Mr. Blanford said that he could not agree with Babu Eajendra 

 lala Mitra that the conditions of the Mahanaddi Delta bore any great 

 resemblance to those of that part of the Ganges Delta, where the 

 Barisal guns are heard, with regard to the supposed conditions of 

 the phenomenon. The shore line of the Mahanaddi Delta is very 



