342

THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

21. From the 25th to 29th a change took place in
    the position and extent of the belt of low pressure.
    Its eastern focus moved further to the north-
    west, and its western focus further north. This
    is shown by the rapid rise of the barometer to
    the eastward at Akyab and Chittagong, and after-
    wards the less considerable rise at Cuttack.
    It is also indicated by the gradual change of
    the directions of the air currents. At False
    Point and Cuttack the wind had veered round
    from N.E. on the 23rd through N. round to W. on
    the 25th, and W.S.W. on the 27th. At Saugor
    Island the wind directions, which had been mostly
    S.E. and E.S.E. up to the 25th, gradually became
    more northerly. A similar change took place at
    Chittagong. At Akyab the easterly directions had
    altogether disappeared on the 27th, the wind being
    almost steadily from the south, but occasionally
    going round to S.S.W. As the area of low pressure
    in the Bay concentrated and moved further north
    and west, the N.E. currents at its north-western
    extremity, as a consequence, became more powerful.
    At Saugor Island the daily velocity in miles increased
    from 236.6 on the 27th to 431.1 on the 28th, and
    535.9 on the 29th. During the early part of the
    last day a steady gale was blowing from the north-
    east.

22. The following tables give an abstract of the
    meteorological observations of most of the ships that
    were in the north of the Bay for some days before
    and during the storm. The readings of the barometers
    are reduced for temperature, in all cases where the
    temperatures were recorded, and the mean of all the
    readings taken during the day is given. As many of
    the ship barometers as I could obtain have been com-
    pared by me with a standard barometer (Casella's
    No. 636) at the Meteorological Office, whose error to
    the Calcutta standard (Newman's No. 86) is known.
    In such cases the corrections to the Calcutta standard
    have been applied. In many cases the latitudes and
    longitudes given are obviously incorrect. In some
    cases they would place the ship on dry land. Of
    course these would be merely errors in the copying
    of the extracts which I received. But more dangerous
    errors than these occur. For many days, owing to
    the continued bad weather, the ships were unable to
    obtain observations, and the latitudes and longitudes
    had consequently to be reckoned by account. These
    are not to be trusted. For example, on 29th June,
    the "City of Madrid" was by account in lat. 19° 7'
    N., long. 89° 53′ E. By observations obtained the
    same day, she was in lat. 17° 36′ N., long. 90° 28′ E.,
    thus showing her true position to have been much
    south and east of the position by account. The
    captain of the "Scimitar" states that from the 25th
    June to 3rd July no reliable observations could be
    obtained, and thinks it probable that the ship was
    much farther to the south and east than the latitudes
    and longitudes by account appeared to show. The
    pilot brigs do not seem to possess chronometers, and
    once they leave their stations, which they all did in
    the late storm and went southwards, "have to trust
    to any stray ship they may come across to give them
    their latitude and longitude." Hence their observa-
    tions are of little use in determining the course of
    the storm.

TABLE I.
Barometers; Latitudes and Longitudes.