'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎22] (125/496)

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a half miles per hour on that day, and the calm lasted two hours, ac
cording* to extract from her log-book : and, as the gale re-commenc-
ed exactly at the opposite point from which it had suddenly died
away, it is obvious that the centre passed directly over the vessel.
The dimensions of this area, within which the “ stormy winds are so
strangely hushed, coincides almost to a mile with those of the foci of
the hurricanes which visit the Mauritius and its neighbourhood, and
proves, by this distinctive and remarkable feature of rotatory gales,
their perfect similarity in both hemispheres. There is reason to be
lieve that this focal calm is most extensive and imperfectly defined
during the formation of a hurricane near to the equator ; and that it
is only after the atmospheric currents acquire a circular movement at
its circumference that the space becomes contracted to ten or twenty
miles, and finally closes with the termination of the vortical force of
the gale. It is more than probable that the central calm narrows and ex
pands at different periods of the storm’s duration; and as much obscu
rity exists regarding its passage over Bombay, we are inclined to
think that there was a temporary abatement of the violent rotation
and a dilatation of the focus, and that towards the tropic it again dis
played its terrible powers.
Fall of Rain,—Rain is almost invariably a concomitant of circular
gales, and during the Malabar storm we hear of its having fallen in
“ complete deluges” along the whole of its track from Ceylon to
Scinde. In consequence of the eastern segment having impinged on
the land, ample details of this fact may be gleaned from the Madras
and Bombay newspapers. At Ceylon, from the 4th to the 12th April
there was heavy rain, often u in torrents,” with thunder and lightning
and an easterly wind ; and from the latter date to the 21st, south-west
erly winds and “ showers ” We also ascertain that five hundred miles
westward of this Island the Buckinghamshire had “ incessant heavy
rain, with northerly wind ; and from the 14th till the storm reached
Kurrachee, there are ample proofs of enormous and unceasing preci
pitation of vapour on every side of the vortex.
A Madura letter of the 17th April says_“ It has been raining the
“ whole week, and especially the last two days it has been perfect
“ monsoon weather. The river has come down fuller than for twenty
“ years before, and the cotton of this season will be greatly damaged.”
At Coimbatore, “ the quantity was not registered, but it is said to have