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THE Ordinary Monthly Meeting of the Bombay Geographical Society was held in its Rooms, Town Hall, on Thursday the 8th January 1852.

John Smith, Esquire, in the Chair.

PRESENT.

P. W. LeGeyt, Esq; R. Haines, Esq., M. B.; Capt. G. Jenkins, I. N.; Venayakrow Jagonathjee, Esq.; and Professor Patton, Secretary.

The Minutes of the Meeting, held on the 13th November 1851, were read and confirmed. MEMBER PROPOSED.-A. Remington, Esq., by the Secretary, seconded by P. W. LeGeyt, Esquire.

Proposed by John Smith, Esquire, seconded by P. W. LeGeyt, Esq., and carried :Resolved," That Arrowsmith's new map of recent Aretic Discoveries in search of Sir John Franklin, and Arrowsmith's map of Gold Fields in Australia and California be ordered out from England; and generally any new maps of interest regularly as published."

LETTERS Ꭱ Ꭼ Ꭺ Ꭰ .

No. 1158 of 1851, from Colonel Melville, Secretary to Government, Marine Department; Nos. 9700 and 10297 of 1851, from Lieutenant W. F. Marriott, Secretary to the Military Board; and letters from Captain Becher of the Admiralty, Messrs. Adie and Sons, Captain Gribble, J. Power, Esquire; W. E. Frere, Esquire; Captain Gaisford, and John Peet, Esquire, Secretary Medical and Physical Society, Bombay.

PRESENTS TO THE LIBRARY.

1. Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, for June, July, and September, Presented by Government.

2. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. xx Part ii.

3. Bulletin De La Societe De Geographie, Troisieme Serie Tome xiv.

4.

5.

The Trial of Lalla Jotee Pershad and others. Presented by the Government of India.
Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Bombay, No. X. Presented by

the Society.

6. Meteorological Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope under the Superintendence of Lieut. Col. Sabine. Presented by H. M.'s Government.

7. The General Distance Tables, by Capt. Gribble. Presented by the Author.

8. The Track of the West India Hurricane of 1851, Sir W. Reid. Presented by Geo. Buist, Esq., L. L. D.

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.

From Trevandrum, for August, September, October and November 1851.

From Pahlunpoor, Surat, and Sawunt Waree, for July, August and September 1851.
From Calcutta and Sattara, for October and November 1851.

From the Ports of Cuddalore and Coconada, for September, October and November.

From Stations of Kamptee, Secunderabad, Calicut, Coimbatoor, Cuddapa, Kurnool, Madura, Chittoor, Nellore, Guntoor, Bangalore, Hurryhur, Mercara, French Rocks, Pallamcotta, Trichinopoly and Cochin, Garrisons of Bellary and Cannanore, Cantonment of St. Thomas's Mount, and Zillah Mangalore, for the months of September and October 1851.

From Belgaum, for the month of November,

From the stations of Cuddalore and Penang, for September,

From Bagdad, for July and August,

connected with

From Muscat, for June, July, August and September.

From Vizagapatam, for October.

After voting their best thanks to the several gentlemen, for their very valuable presents to the Library, the Meeting adjourned.

THE Bombay Geographical Society held its Ordinary Monthly Meeting on the 12th Feb. : present, -Commander G. Jenkins, I. N., senior member, in the chair; Mr. Malet, Secretary to Government; Mr. J. Smith, merchant; Lieut E. F. T. Fergusson, I. N., in charge of Observatory; Mr. N. Oliver, Assistant Master-Attendant; R. Haines, Esq., M. B.; Venayekrao Jugonnathjee, Esq.; and Dr. G. Buist and Professor J. Patton, Secretaries. The minutes of last meeting were read and approved of. The motion of Mr. Sinith, brought before last meeting, on the subject of recent maps and charts, including the newest information in the Polar Seas and around California, was considered a notice, and the motion was put and agreed to. Mr. Smith gave notice of a motion for the purchase of the Blue Books of 1849 and 1851, published by the Admiralty, on the subjects of Polar discovery; and the Secretary stated that although in point of form this must be put at next meeting, he would venture, on his own responsibility, on including the two orders in one, trusting to the motion being agreed to next meeting: a month would thus be saved-Mr. Remington was unanimously elected a member of the Society. The papers of Dr. Buist on the Volcanoes of India, formerly laid before the Society and referred to the Committee on papers, with the one on the Geology of Bombay,-recommended by the Committee to the Society, were directed to be published. Dr. Buist laid before the meeting a box of specimens illustrative of the Geology of Bombay, and stated that a number of similar boxes had been made up for the service of those desiring them. They were kept within such size that two of them might be carried on a bullock, or one transported on the head of a coolie. They were each divided into twenty-eight compartments, each compartment contain ing one or more specimens carefully packed and labelled. The paper before them would form a companion for the boxes for Bombay. An officer proceeding to Scinde, Kolapore, or the Deccan, might provide himself with a box of the specimens belonging to the locality, which would thus furnish him with a key to the rocks in the neighbourhood: and so with any other quarter to which he might propose proceeding. No man could carry with him a complete suite of geological specimens for the purposes of research-those of the district were enough. The collections were specially intended for the Indian Navy, the Quarter. Master-General's and Revenue Departments or any other, the officers under which were engaged in survey or out-of-door work. They were made up at the School of Industry, and supplied at five Rupees each; box and specimens included, thus allowing a small profit to the charity.

Mr. Patton laid before the Society some interesting observations on the moisture contained in the atmosphere under different pressures and temperatures, especially in relation to the formulæ of Apjohn, Dove, and Glaisher, by which the fact was ascertained.

e marked absence rain in there

moon.

Dr. Buist made some remarks on the remarkable elevation of the Barometer all over India in the end of January and beginning of February, which seemed to occur near the change of the This had been observed continually over a period of eight years at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, Trevandrum and Lucknow-at all the stations, in fact, where good observations were obtained. It was near the period of greatest cold, but not at all coincident with it: it occurred very often about the time of the fall of rain, and at all the points just named almost simultaneosly; the mercury springing up by nearly a-tenth of an inch, and then descending as suddenly as it rose. A large mass of figure tables and diagrams were placed before the Society on the subject.

TABLES, SHOWING THE GREAT FEBRUARY RISE OF the Barometer AT CALCUTTA, MADRAS, ADEN, Bombay, AND KURRACHEE.-The figures on the left hand side of the table indicate the days of the month-the columns for January and February are placed immediately contiguous to each other. The columns of the readings commence in the former of these months, when the mercury first begins steadily to rise, and is continued through the second, till the wave has passed. The observations are all corrected for temperature and taken from the records of the observations at the various places named-their accuracy may be depended. on. It is unfortunate that we have so few years of contemporaneous observation for the purpose of comparison. So far as it appears, the maximum of the Barometer occurs all over India at very nearly the period of greatest cold, and when the air is dryest: the tables do not enable us to trace anything like a fluctuation from point to point. On all occasions, it will be observed, the ascents and descents are both rapid, and the mercury having reached its highest point, begins to fall again immediately. It not unfrequently happens that there are two of these sudden jumps upward to nearly the same elevation, and at no great distance in point of time from each other. The publication of the Simla, Lucknow, Singapore, and Trevandrum, and the continuation of the Madras observations will, most likely, furnish us with a large additional amount of light--all, perhaps, that may be required to establish the law, and commence the examination of its origin and cause. The following is an abstract of the Tables:

In 1847, it will be observed, the barometer reached its maximum at Bombay on the 5th February, at Calcutta, 16 to the east, on the 5th, and at Aden, 17° to the west, on the 7th : were the fluctuations due to an atmospheric wave it would almost seem as if this had originated near Bombay and the swell then progressed at an almost equal rate on both sides. This is a particular case and this part of the law does not extend to other years: in 1945, the barometer reached its maximum at Calcutta and Madras on the 11th, and at Bombay on the 12th January, reaching, at the first named of these places, the extraordinary elevation of 30-302, at the others 30-116 and 30.055 respectively.

The tables, as just stated, are so exceedingly imperfect that they are hardly deserving of more minute analysis, and any law that might be deduced from them as they stand would probably be invalidated or upset by a more extended observation: they are given prominently to attract attention to the subject, and as illustrating the variable laws which guide the regular periodical fluctuations of our atmosphere, two or three of which alone are familiar to us.

MADRAS.

BOMBAY.

1839.

1840.