THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 341

13. The wind thus increased in force with violent
    gusts, and between 3 and 6 in the morning was
    blowing a fresh gale. The veering was steady from
    N.E. to S.E., showing that the centre of the storm
    passed south of Saugor, from east towards west.

14. In determining the changes of position of the
    centre of a cyclone from the veering of the wind, it
    must be borne in mind that the direction of the
    currents is not round a circle, but in a spiral, differ-
    ing about two points or more from the circular
    direction, although close to the centre the direction
    is probably more nearly circular. I use the follow-
    ing rule for the Northern Hemisphere:--To find the
    bearing of the centre, stand with your face to the wind
    and measure round to your right hand side about ten
    points (not eight). (When the centre is at a distance,
    it may bear 11, 12, or 13 points from the direction in
    which the wind is blowing. For the Southern Hemi-
    sphere the 10 points would be measured round to the
    left.) Thus at 10 p.m. the wind was N.E., and the
    bearing of the centre consequently about S.S.E.; at
    1 a.m. the wind was E.N.E. and the centre S.; at
    5 a.m. the wind was E.S.E., the centre of the cyclone
    had moved on to S.W.; at 9 a.m. the wind was S.E.,
    showing that the centre had moved on to W.S.W.
    The vortex was nearest to Saugor Island between 3
    and 5 a.m., bearing then about S.S.W. From 5 a.m.
    the barometer rose rapidly and steadily.

15. The atmospheric tide was not affected at Cal-
    cutta during the passage of the storm. The barometer
    was very steady, and although falling at first, com-
    menced to rise when things were looking worst at
    Saugor. There was never much apprehension during
    the night that the storm would come up to Calcutta.
    From a copy of the register kept at the Surveyor-
    General's Office Observatory, kindly supplied to me
    by Colonel Gastrell, I was enabled to compare the
    reading each hour of a standard barometer corrected
    to the Calcutta standard (Newman's No. 86), with
    the reading of the Calcutta standard at the same
    hour of the previous night. There was a fall up to
    about 2 in the morning, and from that hour a steady
    rise. The wind blew sometimes, particularly in the
    early part of the night, in strong gusts, and veered
    unsteadily from E.N.E. to S.E. This will be seen
    from the following register, kept at the Surveyor-
    General's Office :-

16. About 10 o'clock on the forenoon of Monday
    the reports from Saugor showed that the cyclone had
    passed on to the westward, and appearances were
    so favourable both there and in Calcutta, that it was
    considered safe to take down the warning signals
    which had been hoisted since Saturday evening.

17. The next intelligence of the further progress

| of the storm came from Cuttack. The following
special reports were received during the afternoon :-

| Station. | Month. | Date. | Hour. | Barometer unreduced for Temper-
ature. | WIND. Direction. | Velocity.*
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cuttack | ... | July | 1 | 12 | 29.250 | W.S.W. | 10 |
| | | | | 13 | -200 | S.W. | 39.5 |
| | | | | 14 | 200 | | 16.2 |
| | | | | 15 | 220 | | 25.5 |
| | | | | 17 | -260 | | 38.1 |
| | | | | 18 | 330 | S.S.W | 21.5 |

• Velocity in miles per hour.

From this table it will be seen that at 1 p.m. the
vortex was north of Cuttack, passing on afterwards
to. N.N.W., and finally to N.W. The centre was
probably nearest between 3 and 4 p.m., when its
bearing was N.N.W. The wind never blew stronger
than a stiff breeze. It will appear further on that
the cyclone passed a little to the south of Balasore in
a westerly direction about 9 o'clock in the morning.
Coming in contact with the hills to the west of
Balasore its westward progress was checked, and, as
the Cuttack register shows, it curved round and
moved slowly in a south-westerly direction, its energy
being probably nearly exhausted when it passed at
some distance to the north-west of Cuttack on the
evening of the 1st. I have no accounts of its further
movements.

Meteorology of the North of Bay of Bengal previous to
the formation of the Cyclone. Tables Progress of
the Storm. Logs of Ships.* Weather Prognostics.
Warning Signals.

18. The atmospheric disturbance in the Bay of
    Bengal, preceding the formation of the cyclone, has
    been already partially discussed. The wind currents
    had been blowing for some days round and towards
    an area of low pressure, extending probably from
    about lat. 19° N. long. 91° E. in a direction a little
    north of False Point. The sudden fall of the baro-
    meter on the 25th at Akyab seems to indicate that
    the eastern focus of low pressure was then nearest
    to that place. From the logs of ships it appears that
    along and south of this area of low pressure, south-
    westerly gales, accompanied by continuous and exces-
    sive rainfall, prevailed, the wind directions being
    more westerly towards the western extremity and
    more southerly towards the eastern extremity.
    North of the area of low pressure, which probably
    extended towards Chittagong, following in some
    measure the configuration of the coast line, the winds
    were light and unsteady, mostly from S.E. to E.N.E.,
    and accompanied by very little rainfall.

20. I had here purposed putting forward certain
    theoretical views, which I think are strongly sup-
    ported by the evidence of facts and meteorological
    observations, with regard to the formation of cyclones
    and the reasons why they occur at different periods
    in different parts of the Bay of Bengal. Although
    the tables were constructed with this object in view,
    I found that it would be impossible to enter into
    sufficient details of all the evidence and data, and the
    account was necessarily only a sketch of a theory
    involving unsettled questions connected with the
    monsoons and the whole system of normal winds of
    India. Views, more or less new, upon such ques-
    tions of meteorology, must be open in a great
    measure to dispute, and I have hence thought it
    better to withdraw them from this report and reserve
    them for presentation to some scientific society, where
    they can be advanced with all the evidence and data,
    and discussed in full detail.

Logs of ships and weather prognostics, being lengthy tables,
are not printed.