| Description | Daily records of the weather at Calcutta [Kolkata], usually two to three observations per day, at varying times. Columns for date and time, barometer, hygrometer, thermometer inside and outside, kind and quantity of clouds, wind direction and force, rain, and miscellanous remarks. The latter are often general weather observations, but include phenomena such as mock suns [p.37]. The author travels occasionally: therefore some entries are not from Calcutta, for example: 6 March 1776 [p.17] 'At Budge Budge in a yacht'; 29 January 1777 [p.127] 'At Dun Dumah 9 miles from the Fort'.
There are several notices of earthquakes. Among others, on 3 March 1776 [p.15]: 'This moment I felt the shock of an Earthquake & within half a minute a second; it made me so giddy I could hardly sit in my chair', followed by a series of aftershocks; 16 July 1776 [p.72] 'I felt a slight shock of an Earthquake, a Tremor & three undulating motions...'; 8 December 1776 [pp.115-116] 'A very severe Earthquake, it stopped my astronomical clock...'; 10 January 1778 [p.194] 'a slight shock...I did not feel it but those I had been sitting with did - a Woman leaning against a Post came to tell me the Bungalo shook & the Post rocked...'.
Apparently a fair copy of material in MA/200 and [from p.164-] MA/201. |