248 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Oct. 



advanced ; for had the tilting of the ladle commenced, it must have 

 fallen on its side, and in an instant the helpless creatures on the 

 ground would have been in the midst of the metal. Nor could succour 

 have reached them from without ; for it would have been impossible 

 to drag them out without stepping into it." 



u My principal object, however, in sending this report is to draw 

 your attention to the position of the Foundry chimneys, which 

 are all armed with lightning rods, and to show how little protec- 

 tion they may afford ; for it would have been thought that with 

 these five conductors in such close proximity to the moulding shed, 

 it were almost impossible for the latter to be struck. The course 

 of the electric fluid appears to me to have been from the cor- 

 rugated iron roof down the large crane which was being worked, and 

 which is connected with the roof by several iron stays ; it must then 

 have followed the course of the floor, however, to have affected the 

 men in the south-east angle of the room, and made its exit in the 

 direction of the south-east door- way near the small cupola." 



" I have no doubt that the same cause to which the accident may be 

 mainly attributed, was also that of the saving of life, viz. the large 

 quantities of metal lying about both inside and outside, and principally 

 the metal roof, which dissipated the electric charge rapidly in every 

 direction; but it is wonderful that the shock should have been received 

 at all by this building in preference to the gun furnace chimney so 

 close to it, and which cannot be less than eighty feet high and has a 

 conductor." 



" As the efficacy of lightning rods has been a good deal disputed by 

 scientific men, every fact which can be brought to bear on the subject 

 is valuable, and it might be assumed that it is to their peculiar con- 

 struction, so little raised above the surface of the soil, that powdc 

 magazines owe their immunity from danger." 



7. From the Government of Bombay, a copy of c Report by H. 

 Stokes, Esq., First Assistant Collector, Belgaum, on the preservatic 

 of the Canarese inscriptions in that district, and the advisabilit 

 of printing Mr. Walter Elliott's collection of Canarese inscriptioi 

 now deposited with the Royal Asiatic Society in London.' 



8. From the same, a copy of ' Report on the Progress of the Am-I 

 bemath Expedition.' 



