'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎26] (45/258)

xxvi
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY.
Ihe crowded and blank spaces seemed after a year or two to make their
appearance at fixed and uniformly recurring dates. The assumption was,
that if this was shown to hold good for a succession of years, that two sets of
remarkable facts must obtain, the determination and the knowledge of which
must be of the utmost interest to meteorologists, and of the greatest value to
agriculture and navigation.
1st.—That there is a class of atmospheric disturbances which occur at certain
seasons of the year over large regions of space almost simultaneously ; and
on these I have bestowed, in contradistinction to’the designation Cyclone, or
Hurricane, or the local or travelling disturbance, that of “ Storms of Simulta
neous Occurrence.”
2nd. —That these storms are not only isochronous, but that they occur at
nearly the same time every year.
Since 1819 my hands have been so much more occupied than before, and I
have been so frequently disabled by sickness, that though I have never I think
suffered an observation to escape me unregistered,—and the mass of
matter thus systematically stored away, begins to assume an appearance
almost alarming—I have never been able to make use of it as desired
in any published or publishable form ; and I avail myself of the opportunity
the discussion of the storms of the last two nights of October, and the
hurricane of the first two of November last, affords me, of bringing my
views on these subjects before the world, crude and immature as they are,
in hopes of securing the assistance of other meteorologists in the prosecution
of a task one can hardly hope to accomplish single-handed. I am far from
setting forth the doctrines already broached as anything like established; but
I think I have got evidence sufficient, so far at least as India is concerned,
to make out a strong presumption in their favour—their confirmation or
refutation must be the work of time. The following examples will illustrate
the manner in which the investigation was for a time pursued :—Large maps
of India were got prepared on purpose, and on those all the storms of which
accounts had been obtained were washed in in green; storms of wind were
indicated by arrows, hail by blue dots and thunder by zigzags of red. The
extracts I have given below were printed on the corners of the maps, and at the
bottom were three ruled chequers for the barometer—the first and last chequers
narrow, representing a single day. On the first of these the curved diagrams
for the month when the storm occurred, from all the Observatories where
hourly registers were kept, that could be obtained, were given ; on the
other the means of the year ; thus indicating the extent of departure from
Ihe ordinary type of pressure both monthly and yearly, that had occurred.
The principal diagram, placed between these two,—the three filling up the
breadth of the map,—afforded chequered spaces for a succession of five days’
hourly readings, from every quarter whence reliable information could
be obtained laid in in distinct colours ; this being the extreme period over
which this class of storms was, at most, ever found to extend. The whole
presented at a glance a general idea of the space and number of points through
Hindustan where these storms had occurred, always to be taken with the
qualifications already set forth in reference to the paucity of observers and
points of observation, compared with the vastness ot the regions from which
information was desired ; while the letter press gave the same thing in figures
and indicated the authorities on which the whole was given. °
Iii tlie Appendix, l shall endeavour to give a list of our first week of No
vember storm ;, such as I have not yet had time to prepare. I have omitted