148 



Phenome^ion in the hidimi Sens. 



[Jan. 



preaching the dimensions which are now usually adopted in Europe : I 

 will end my queries by asking whether 1 am still entitled to subscribe 

 myself, 



A non contributing reader ? 



Amico-ponticulus. 



Trichinopoly, b'h August, 1S3S. 



VIII. — A remarkahle Appearance In thp Inrlinn Sras ; in a Lrfte^' from 

 L I ei/ienajit J) AwsQ-n. Communkat^d hy William Newnhaivi, EbQ, 



I beg leave to lay before the meeting an extract from the private jour- 

 nal of Lieutenant Henry DaTvson, a very intelligent officer of the Ptoyal 

 Navy, at present employed on civil duties with the Indian Navy at Bom- 

 bay, containing an account of a very extraordinary phenomenon, whi(;h 

 was observed on the passage from B^'mbay to ihe Persian Gulf (the 

 southern passage), on board the Honourable Company's sloop of war 

 Clive, in 1832. On my first going to India, I was in the habit of intima- 

 cy with the late Captain David Seton, who was many years resident at 

 Muscat, and I well remember hearing him relate the circumstance of 

 falling in with the whHe sea, described by Mr. Dawson, on his occasional 

 voyages to Muscat, during the period of the south-west monsoon.* So 

 many years, however, have since elapsed, I am unable to give any more 

 detail of the circumstance related by that offi 'er, and merely here allude 

 to it in proof of the phenomenon having been before observed. 



William Newnham. 



During a passage from Bombay to the Persian Gulf, on board the 

 Honourable Company's sloop Clive, on the 22nd of August, 1832, at a 

 quarter before eight o'clock at night, a phenomenon appeared of the 

 following nature, and to all on board, of an unheard-of-kind, which gave 



* Our subsequent inquiries serve to confirm this statement, inasmuch as few naviga- 

 tors appear to have passed along the eastern coast of Arabia, in the months of June, 

 July, and August, -svithout noticing the discolourment of the water (but during the 

 'mg7«< onZ?/>», and which, on examination when brought onboard, is said to exhibit no 

 difference whatever from sea-water in other parts of the ocean.— Eo. Jour, R. A, S. 



