290 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Nov 



Length of a milo or two each, advancing obliquely from the S. S. TV. 

 would break successively on the coast from TV. to E. To a 

 person close by, the sound of each wave would be somewhat con- 

 tinuous ; but to a person 40 or 50 miles off, if the wave broke simul- 

 taneously, the sound would be a boom like that of a gun, because 

 both extremities of the wave would be nearly at the same distance 

 from the hearer as the centre, 



* I have at Pooree, when the S. TV. Monsoon has lulled, seen far 

 to the south a very lofty wave break with a distinct booming noise , 

 a second or two after another nearer, then one opposite to me, and 

 then others towards the north as far as one could see. Even to 

 one standing on the beach, the noise of these waves (except the 

 nearest) was so like that of guns that we used to remark on the 

 resemblance. When the wind was blowing strongly, the wave was 

 turned over by the force of it, before it attained its full height ; but 

 when there was no wind, or a slight breeze from the shore, whilst 

 the swell was still high from the effect of the monsoon, this pheno- 

 menon often occurred, the wave rising to an immense height and 

 breaking over a mile or two of beach at one moment. 



1 1 may remark that the wind blows very obliquely on to the 

 Pooree coast and would not take the sound so far inland as at 

 Backergunge. 



1 The great difficulty about the Barisal guns arose from the fact 

 that the Musalmans at Perijpore and round the Kocha River cele- 

 brate their marriages chiefly in September and always fire off 

 earthen bomb shells, and it is almost impossible to tell the sound of 

 these from the Barisal guns. I should never have believed in 

 them at all, if I had not once, when in the Saplenja river in the 

 Sundaxban, with nothing but forest to my south, heard them dis- 

 tinctly on four or five different occasions in one night. Of course we 

 may have been mistaken, but the sound to our senses was un- 

 doubtedly from the south, and much louder than I ever heard it 

 before. It woke me up from sleep, we were then about SO miles 

 from the coast.' 



2. From H. J. Rainey, Esq., Zamindar Khulna, Jessore, on the 

 same subject. 



