Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-02-13
AERIAL EXPLOSIONS.
Scientists Can Throw No Light ON "the
Barisal Gun"

One of the most startling mysteries
of nature is the phenomenon known
in India as 1.-THE BarisaI gun" says
the YOUTHS Companion In a part of
the delta of the Gauges Getonations
that sound as if caused by the dis
charge of heavy artillery are heard
booming through the air at irregular
intervals, rising from none can say
where and caused by none can say
what,
They have been heard during at
least 400 years, as is proved by local
history. and tradition does reach a
time when they were not heard.
Nevertheless, they have never been ex-
planned.
Barisal is a little town on the west
ern bank of the Barisal river, siXty-dve
miles north of the Bay of Bengal.
Although its name has been used as
though the sounds were peculiar to the
place. the noises are familiar to the
people of Dacca, seventy-live miles
northward. They sometimes occur at
Chittagong, 100 miles eastwardly, and
occasionally startle folks at equally
great distances away toward the west
and south. They have been heard with
great distinctness at Cherra Punt
which is nearly 200 miles north of the
Bay of Bengal
AT times they seem to come from the
south and southwest, and again from
the north or east. Wherever one hears
them they always seem to come from
4, al k,n h.n
known to be near them, but they are
never so remote as to leave doubt in
the minds of those who hear them that
they are actually the sounds of cam
nonading.
The natives ever ready to explain
what they do not understand by giving
it a supernatural origin, had two YER
sions o the cause of the detonations-
one, that they were the sound of the
opening aud shutting of the brazen
gates of the mythical palace of Ravau-
ma, on the island of Ceylon; the other,
that aerial beings-Deyatds produced
them by the firing of ghostly cannon in
honor of Kahia Ali or Khan Jahan,
who was Tahsildar of Bagirhat 600
years ago.
Now. during more than a year, the
Asiatic society of Bengal, after collect
ing and studying the facts, finds these
mysterious aerial demonstrations as
deep a puzzle as ever.
Fully to appreciate the strangeness
of this phenomenon it is necessary to
understand something Of the country
in which it takes place aud the condi-
tions under which it is heard,
The land in all the district mentioned
is fat, alluvial plain, intersected by
network of almost innumerable
streams and channels Of the sacred
Ganges. This is the general character
of at least $4,000 square miles Of the
deltas of the Gauges and Brahamapoo-
ira rivers.
The nearest hills are 100 miles away
from Barisal toward the east and near
ly double that distance northwestward-
". so there is no basis for an echo
hypothesis if even it were possible to
find anything that might cause such
echoes.
There are no military cantonments
and no heavy guns in all that part of
the delta where these noises occur, so
that the eau not be caused by real
material guns.
Tn declarations are always heard at
their best in the cearest and dryest
weather, and never during storms, so
atmospheric electricity can not reason
ably be held responsible for them.
They have not been known to occur
with earthquakes,
All over the territory in which this
phenomenon occurs the Asiatic society
of Bengal has caused to be distributed
printed lists Of questions and blank
forms. TO be filled out with data which
it is hoped will when collated, sustain
some hypothesis, or demolish b. IN
evidence all that may
have been or may be advanced