on the same day, and at nearly the same hour, over thousands of miles of

area.

At Calcutta there was an earthquake, but no perturbation at Ceylon a terrific tempest: in the Arabian sea towards Aden, squalls and variable winds. On the same day, 22nd January, furious storms raged at Malta, Gibraltar, and all over the north of Europe. Betwixt the 19th and 24th February we had another great crisis. A hailstorm occurred on the 23rd on the Chenaub, and our troops near Goojrat were deluged with rain. A storm raged in the upper part of the Bay of Bengal so severe that it was feared the monsoon, which seldom appears till the middle of May, was at hand.

At Chittagong a severe gale of wind blew from south on the 19th, 20th, and 21st, and a violent storm of thunder and rain followed. At Tipperah, betwixt Chittagong and Calcutta, a furious squall blew on the 19th, uprooting trees and destroying houses. The wind blew from south-west. On the 21st a storm occurred at Madras ; on the 20th it blew half a gale at Hoshungabad; and at Bombay and again at Aden the mercury fell. Betwixt the 6th and 7th March we had a period of great depression and very general perturbation. At Calcutta, Bombay, and Aden; the first and last nearly 3000 miles apart, the first 600 miles to the northward of the last, Bombay half way between; the barometers plumped down simul. taneously.

At Hoshungabad on the upper Nurbudda a violent thunderstorm occurred. This perturbation was at most places discoverable only from the depression of the barometer: the aspect of the sky and barometric returns in India are at all times unfortunately difficult to be come by. On the 22nd of March, again, a disturbance of a much more severe description was experienced over most of the vast tract here referred to. It was experienced at Calcutta on the 23rd; at Ahmedabad, 1000 miles to the westward, on the 25th; at Poona and Bombay on the 26th. At Ceylon and on the Upper Indus there were showers on the 22nd. On the south-western coast we had heavy showers at Cochin on the 24th, and the following day the weather changed at Bombay. The 6th and 20th of April, or within a day or two of these dates, have for a long period of years furnished us with two of the most regularly recurring series of perturbations we possess. We had this season a considerable diminution of pressure at Bombay on the 4th and 5th, and on the latter day a notable perturbation occurred. Three men-of-war ships were detained forty hours in harbour before they could find an offing-the air was charged with moisture. From Aden to Calcutta we have no barometric returns There was a furious dust-storm at Kurrachee on the 6th, and another of longer duration near Hyderabad in the Deccan on the 7th, On the 4th a furious hailstorm occurred in Lower Bengal, the hail as large as eggs. At Attock, on the Upper Indus, violent rain fell on the 6th. On the 21st April a sudden change took place in the weather, Thunder clouds appeared over the Ghauts, and lightning was seen in abundance. The wind got round to south, and threatened rain. At Madras, and across the peninsula at Cochin, about 300 miles off, violent thunderstorms prevailed, and heavy rain fell; showers were abundant at Ceylon: and on the same day a violent thunderstorm occurred at Simla, three people being killed by lightning. A desperate storm occurred at Bhoolooa in Lower Bengal, above twenty people having been killed by the lightning or hail. At Deesa, and near Calcutta, a thunderstorm occurred on the 14th; and rain fell at Colombo and at the Mahabuleshwar Hills on the 17th. Were

we in possession of a large number of returns, we have no doubt that hundreds of places might be named for every one we have mentioned were storms of simultaneous occurrence appeared.

:

The law here laid down is not altogether without exceptions, we have occasionally isolated storms and falls of rain, or have these occurring in succession on different days at different places, but the rule as laid down is so uniform and general that it is not materially invaded by the exceptions it is, we should think, peculiar to tropical climates, and in no quar ter of the world can it be so satisfactorily investigated as in India. The paths of our great revolving hurricanes have been traced and mapped by Mr. Piddington, and we have before us a series of weather maps now in process of construction, in which our lesser perturbations are laid down, exhibiting at once to the eye all the most remarkable phenomena of the year. One map gives the rainy season, the Malabar monsoon being marked in yellow, the Coromandel rains in blue; the region visited by both is green: the depth of tint in all cases giving some idea of the amount of the fall, which on the coast is from 70 to 80 inches, on the mountain range from 240 to 320, and few miles inland on the table-land from 15 to 25. The regions where casual rains only occur, and which are without any regular rainy season, are left uncoloured. The storms of simultaneous occurrence are coloured green,-dots of a deeper tint indicating those points from which returns have been received, the rest being the space over which the storm has in all likelihood extended. All showers of casual and irregular occurrence are indicated by patches of colours of different tints on the same map,-the dates due to each being indicated: the two sets together at once illustrate the doctrine and the facts already laid down. Hail is indicated by blue dots; thunder by orange or vermillion zigzags; the region of the land and sea breezes, and the general direction of the wind at a given locality in different seasons, by arrow heads. A separate map shows at a glance the whole of the most remarkable thunderstorms of the year, for both sets of maps refer to a single season only, the storms of different dates being denoted by various tints of vermillion, red lead, orange, chrome, yellow, and so forth: the dates are denoted in the margin. So is it with hail and dust storms and hurricanes, where the whole phenomena within the year are not too complex or numerous to confuse the map. The lower margin is divided to a depth corresponding to four inches on the barometer, into tenths and hundredths of an inch, and into four days of time horizontally, each hour being noted; and here the state of barometric pressure is indicated by curves at all the stations from which returns can be obtained during the continuance or progress of the storm,— for which the time allotted seems sufficient. First attempts of this sort must always be crude and imperfect, but it is something even to have broken ground each succeeding year will insure improvements and bring assistants into the field, where the concerted exertions of a multitude are indispensable. The first thing requisite in the maps themselves is to have good copper-plate, or transfers from copper-plate, maps substituted for the filthy lithographs Bombay supplies; and we have no doubt that in a case where thousands of copies are indispensable, and economy more important than recency or precision in geographical details, the English map-dealers will be ready to do the needful.

We have been led into this digression to show the means by which anything that might be imagined fanciful or speculative in these remarks may be got rid of; the map at once indicates the rarity of casual and irregular

storms compared to those which are well pronounced in character and contemporaneous in their occurrence. When the work, in which the years 1848 and 1849 is at present being treated of, extends over a sufficient expanse of time, the correspondence betwixt our storms of uniform occurrence in point of date will be manifest at once. Could it be shown that for the last ten years, as it can for the past two, storms had occurred on the 7th and 22nd March, and on the 6th and 20th of April, or within a day or two of these dates respectively, over the same tracts of country, we shall have well nigh the elements of meteorological prognostication in our hands.

The hailstorms of the present year, so far as it has gone, will, we feel satisfied, strike the European reader as not a little remarkable: we have noticed them casually above, we may now enumerated them in detail. Though common around Calcutta, hailstorms are almost unknown on the western shores of India: in the interior they are plentiful enough.

The first in point of time we have to notice is that which occurred at and around Jaulna and Aurungabad on the 14th January. At Jaulna the pieces of ice were mostly flattened spheres, or lenticular, being from 14 to 24 inches in diameter, some of them filling the mouth of a claret glass: they weighed from one to two ounces. Gardens were destroyed, houses penetrated, and branches of trees broken off, by them; and several people, with many sheep and oxen, were killed by them in the field. The storm prevailed, though with less violence, at Aurungabad, all over Cadeish, and on to Deesa and the borders of Cutch, the extreme points being above 300 miles apart. On the 22nd February hail fell on the Chenaub, and the lover of coincidences may observe the fact, that at the battle of Chillianwalla, the surrender of Mooltan, and victory of Goojrat, we had heavy falls of rain with fair weather between. On the 26th March a hailstorm occurred at Tipperah, about 100 miles from Calcutta; the pieces were gathered in heaps, and many birds were killed by them. At Purneah, some one hundred miles further up, there was a hailstorm on the 4th of April, when the hailstones are said to have been as large as oranges. A second hailstorm occurred at l'ipperah on the 14th, when the Rajah of the place and an attendant were killed by lightning. A hailstorm occurred at Bhoolooa a week afterwards, in which many lives were lost the ground was covered with masses of ice.

This for India is a tolerable catalogue for the first half of the year, when it is remembered that where the hail fell the temperature in the sun was above 120°, and in the shade seldom under 80° or 90°.

As to hurricanes, whirlwinds, and the like, they are so common as scarcely to be worthy of notice: our Bengal friends keep them mainly to themselves, and they are welcome. On the 14th April several lives were lost by lightning near Calcutta ; and on the 20th at Madras and at Simla.

We have given this fragmentary notice partly for the reason assigned at the outset, and in part because we are desirous of drawing the attention of friends at home to the progress of meteorological researches in India. We have here an unusually favourable field, but we have many difficulties to contend with, and we stand greatly in need especially of countenance and aid from home.

We have for years been in the hope of seeing some dozen of local obser vatories established at the cost of H.M.'s Lords of the Admiralty in our neighbourhood, but hitherto we have hoped in vain. The harvest is large, the reapers numerous, but the implements are wanting.

THE PORTLAND BREAKWATER.

In order that our readers may be able to form a clear idea of the work, some brief description of the locality is necessary. Portland, as most of our readers are aware, is an island formed of a mass of stone, rising to a considerable height out of the sea, and is joined to Weymouth by a neck of land forming part of the Chesil beach, and by a bridge 600 feet in length. This Chesil bank is a natural breakwater to Portland road on the west, and to protect shipping in the road on the east, the artificial breakwater which was commenced to-day was designed. The harbour of refuge is therefore formed by the Chesil bank on the west; by the Isle of Portland on the south; by the breakwater on the east; and by the Nothe and Weymouth Bay on the north. The breakwater springs out from the north side of the island about three-quarters of a mile to the south-east of Portland Castle. It is to extend in a north-east direction for a distance of a mile and a quarter, sheltering an area of 1,822 acres. It will be constructed in two parts, the smaller one 1,500 feet long, the larger 6,000 feet; between these there will be an entrance 400 feet wide. The breakwater will be sunk about seven fathoms below low water mark, and will rise to a height 10 feet above it. Its base will on the average be 260 feet wide, and its surface 23 feet 6 inches. The small breakwater points due east; the large one north-east. The convicts on the island will load and bring the wagons to the head of the railways, and the other portion of the work will be effected by free labour. Messrs. J. and C. Rigby of London, have contracted for the preliminary works, and will doubtless be the builders of the break water. The Chief

Engineer is James Meadows Rendel, Esq., F.R.S. The Resident Engineer is James Coode, Esq., and the Assistant Engineer is Mr. Poppelton.

The breakwater will be constructed of stone from the inexhaustible quarries of the island. The principal quarry is situate about a mile to the south of the breakwater and many hundred feet above it. The stone is conveyed by railroads, of which there are two sets of lines, the trucks being attached to ropes of coiled wire wound round large cylinders. Those who have seen the works on the Blackwall Railway will at once comprehend the method of propelling the trucks. The only difference between the Blackwall and the Portland railways is, that on the latter no steam power is used, the incline of the railways, which in some places is 1 in 10, being sufficient to propel the trucks. The loaded trucks draw up the empty ones, and the speed is regulated by a wrought iron band clasped round the cylinder and acting upon its motions as a drag does upon a wagon. There are three pairs of these drums (in wooden sheds) between the quarry and the break

water.

A great quantity of preliminary work has already been effected. The cutting of the inclines through, in some places 70 feet of rock; the formation of the road from Portland pier to the break water, the erection of a very handsome suite of engineer's offices, &c., have already cost about £70,000. The breakwater will, it is supposed, cost about £600,000 in addition. The contract is not yet taken.

Respecting the probable period that the work will occupy, we cannot do better than quote the remarks of the original projector of this great undertaking—the late Mr. J. Harvey, whose work entitled "Remarks on the subject of an Asylum Harbour for Portland Roads," has just entered a Seventh Edition. "It is remarkable," said he, "that although the breakwater

* From a pamphlet published by Mr. John Harvey, Post Master at Weymouth.

and works at Cherbourg were thirty years in the execution, a work of greater magnitude as a capacious roadstead, might be undertaken and accomplished at Portland, within a period of five years. It may be asked how can this assertion be satisfactorily proved? I answer, that the Island of Portland affords stones already quarried, to be obtained gratis, in any quantity, and for this obvious reason, there are in the space of one mile of quarries no less than twenty million tons of stone already prepared, and which may be taken away; this is five times the quantity of material more than is required to complete this useful and important undertaking; and further to elucidate the subject, the stone most proper for the purpose of the breakwater is that termed the cap-stone, which is not of a marketable quality for architectural use, and is generally hard, rough, and shelly. I will now endeavour to explain how it is that stones in such immense quantities are to be obtained already prepared, and so extremely well calculated for such a work. It is required in order to work the quarries, to remove on an average, fourteen feet thick of the upper or cap-stone, ere it is possible to arrive at the layer, or bed of the fine, saleable stone; this broken-up cap-stone becomes a great and extensive encumbrance, and the utter ruin of the ground it occupies; the immediate benefit arising from its removal would be the restoration of the land, and this it is obvious would lessen the price of stone-a price in fact having already been given by the public for this saleable stone, covering the whole expense incurred in breaking up the cap-stone, which has been collecting for centuries past. The railroad required for its conveyance from the quarries to the wharf or shipping off place would be an accommodation of no small consideration to the merchants, because the railroads can remain for their use, when the breakwater shall be finished."

The foundation stone was not remarkable either for size or beauty. It weighed nine tons, but stones weighing twenty tons have been quarried here and shipped. It was suspended (by a pair of shears ornamented with evergreens and flags) immediately over a hole in the platform. In the upper portion of the stone a hole was cut, in which a glass bottle was placed containing coins of the realm, of the value of £2, from a sovereign down to a silver penny-piece. This bottle was secured by a brass plate bearing the following inscription:

"On the 25th day of July, A.D. 1849, in the 12th year of the reign of Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, His Royal Highness Prince Albert, K.G., &c., deposited this stone, to record the commencement of the Portland Breakwater. James Meadows Rendel, Engineer in Chief; John Coode, Resident Engineer."

Upwards of 600 Portlanders each wearing a rosette, marched to the ground at an early hour, and took up a position immediately in the rear of the military.

Upon the Nothe and also upon the high ground above the pier, at Portland, booths were erected, where those who could not witness the actual laying of the stone, solaced themselves with a glass and a pipe, and a view of the animated spectacle in Portland Roads.

The Masons of the district assembled on the occasion to do honor to the ceremony.

Upwards of fifty craft of all sorts and sizes studded the road. Yachts, Cutters, Luggers, Schooners, Brigs, Smacks, Billy Boys, and pleasure boats met the eye in all directions. The Cuckoo, Sphinx, Fire Queen, Vulcan, and Rolla, government steamers; the Benita, yacht, (Col. Freestun,) the Unicorn, (Perkins, Esq.,) the Mischief, (T. Wardell, Esq.,) the Lady of