1861.] 
163 
'Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 
“The phenomenon in question was brought to mjr notice on Mon- 
day morning, the 18th ultimo, by some of the students in the highest 
class of the Krishnagur College, who sought for an explanation. 
“ They stated that at 7 p. m. nearly, of the 16th ultimo, a report 
reached them that the large tank adjoining the Rajbarry (as large as 
Tank Square in Calcutta) was extraordinarily agitated. The horns were 
sounded as is usual on very extraordinary occurrences, and they ran 
to the spot to witness the “ troubled waters,” and five or six declared 
that they were eye-witnesses of the fact. They observed the water 
rise about a foot above its level and then recede, that it did not rise 
and fall vertically, but when it rose one foot on one side of the tank 
it left bare a foot on the opposite side and vice versa ; that these two 
sides lay nearly East and West and that mid-way of the other two 
sides, there was a line running North and South where the water 
maintained a constant level — an axis of oscillation : — so much detail 
was elicited by question and answer with the first student of the class, 
who said that he was curious to know whether there was any differ- 
ence on opposite sides, and he stationed one on one side while he went 
on the other and agreed with him upon certain signals : that the 
oscillation appeared to be about once in four or five seconds, and that 
this agitation went on lessening for the quarter of an hour that he 
was there, after which it ceased. 
“ First there was an impression in my mind that some large animal, 
an elephant, might have been bathing and plunging on the opposite 
side, no compliment to my friend’s powers of observation ! but no 
elephant was seen ; next, that it might have been an alligator, or it 
might have been a sudden flow of water into the river which com- 
municating with the tank by a direct channel, caused a rise and fall : 
if the communication were by percolation through the strata, the 
oscillation would be vertical and very slow. 
“ A day or two after, I learnt that a similar phenomenon was 
witnessed at the following places on the same day and at the same 
hour very nearly. 
“ At Madhubpur, about 8 miles N. E. from Krishnagur, in a jheel, 
where at one time the river ran ; here the water rose in waves. 
“ At Nuddea, where a man taking water from the river felt the 
water suddenly rise above his feet and wet his clothes, and where an 
unusually high ‘ tide’ was observed by the boatmen. 
