ME. H. F. BLANFOED ON THE WINDS OF NOETHEEN INDIA. 
575 
Cuttack and False Point are both situated to the south of this range, on the alluvial 
plain of Orissa. The former, 80 feet above the sea, lies close to the low hills from 
which the Mahanuddy debouches on its delta. The latter is one of the more prominent 
points of the same delta, 50 miles east from Cuttack, and, jutting beyond the general 
outline of the coast, is fully exposed to the winds that at different seasons of the year 
sweep up and down the Bay of Bengal. 
At all these stations wind observations have been recorded night and day, at intervals 
of six hours. 
The Tables are drawn up from the registers of three years ; but it is to be regretted 
that, in the case of Hazareebagh and Cuttack, more especially the latter, they are vitiated 
by the omission of calms. I infer from the more recent registers that at Cuttack in the 
cold-weather months the atmosphere is as calm as in Behar. 
At Hazareebagh, as in the Ganges valley, the prevailing winds are from north-west 
and west ; these amount together to 46 per cent, on the average of the year. North- 
east is the quarter of least frequency (4 per cent.), and winds from north and east do 
not exceed 7 and 8 per cent, respectively. During the cold-weather months the wind 
blows pretty steadily from between west and north-west. As the temperature increases 
on the approach of the hot weather, this current tends to back towards south-west and 
south ; and in June south and south-east winds preponderate, bringing the rains from 
the Bay of Bengal. In July there is a further backing towards south-east and east ; but 
in August a sudden increase of west and south-west winds implies an incursion of the 
monsoon current from the Arabian Sea. In September, however, the easterly backing 
is resumed, and east and south-east winds attain their annual maximum, amounting 
together to 45 per cent, of the observations. In October winds from the opposite 
quarters regain the ascendant, and the winter monsoon sets in from north-west by west. 
It is to be observed that the annual partial rotation of the winds is here chiefly 
retrograde, viz. from north-west through south-west and south to south-east, and that 
when a semirevolution has been completed, and the rainy monsoon has attained its 
extreme easting in September, it is followed and supplanted by land-winds setting in 
from the opposite quarter of the compass. We shall presently. see that the winds of 
the Gangetic delta follow a similar course. The incursion of the south-west current in 
August has been already noticed in the case of Agra, Benares, and Patna. It is much 
more decided at Hazareebagh, and equally so, but more prolonged and regular, at 
Cuttack and False Point. The mean velocity of the wind at Hazareebagh is more than 
twice as great as at Benares, and nearly twice as great as at Patna. At the time of its 
maximum in May and June it is twice as great as when at its minimum in November 
and December. In point of steadiness, however, the periods of maximum and minimum 
are reversed. The north-west winds of November and December, if gentle, blow very 
steadily, and the resultants show an excess of 62 per cent. In May, on the other hand, 
there is an excess of 17 per cent, only in the direction of the resultant. 
At Cuttack and False Point we meet with a wind-system very different in its more 
