114 
braced a space of 18° of lat. and 20° of 
long., (about 1,200 miles in length and 
breadth). In many particular spots in 
this extent of country, of course, the 
motion was either not noticed or did not 
occur; but it was severely or sensibly 
felt at these limits on the evening of the 
16th June.* 
We come now to speak of the effects 
of this awful occurrence. And first of 
all it may be proper to advert to our 
own feelings, and the state of our minds, 
on witnessing, for the first time, sucha 
visitation. If I were to say that the 
impression, after the shock had subsided, 
was an agonizing fear, it might perhaps 
offend, although the strong oppression 
at the heart, a kind of gasping anxiety, 
weakness in the limbs, and in some 
cases among Europeans, and generally 
throughout the natives, a slight sickness 
of stomach, certainly cannot be inter- 
preted in more appropriate language. 
For a long time, and indeed I believe 
up to the present day, among natives, 
similar symptoms in a less degree are 
felt on the occurrence of the slight 
shocks; but for a short time after the 
16th there was a restlessness and disin- 
clination to be alone, or to attend to 
usual occupations, visible in both Euro- 
pean and native societies. In the latter, 
‘despair and helplessness were strongly 
depicted in their countenances, and their 
language and actions both corroborated 
the fact of these feelings being the sole 
tenants of their minds. They insisted 
to a man that there was almost a con- 
stant undulatory motion in the earth, 
and frequent vibrations between the 
shocks, for ten days after the 16th; and 
this last feeling among Europeans was, 
I believe, confined to myself and one or 
two other persons. 
_ The brute creation in general did not 
appear to show much sensibility to the 
motion; but it was remarked that horses 
in action partially lost their equilibrium, 
and that pigeons and other birds roost- 
ing were delicately sensible of the least 
motion. The elephants in Bhooj broke 
from their pickets, and seemingly in great 
alarm attempted’‘to rush through the 
street, till obstructed by the falling of 
houses. 
* It may not be superfluous to remark, 
that about the beginning of June 1819 
Mount Etna was threatening to bury in its 
lava the cities in its vicinity; Vesuvius was 
in a similar state of violent agitation ; and 
earthquakes were felt in different parts of 
Italy, and I believe in Sicily, although not 
in the vicinity of these mountains. 
The great Earthquakes tn India in 1819. 
[Sept. 1, 
The shock of the 16th was the only 
one by which the face of nature or the 
works of man were materially injured 
or changed. In the province of Cutch, 
it may be fairly asserted that no town 
escaped feeling its effects, either in the 
fall of houses or in that of its fortifi- 
cations, 
The capital naturally attracts our first 
attention; and as Bhooj suffered in 
many respects more severely than any 
other town, nearly ‘seven thousand 
houses, great and small, were overturn- 
ed, and eleven hundred,and forty or fifty 
people buried in the ruins. The houses 
were built of stone and chunam, or in 
many cases mud instead of this cement. 
Such houses as were built of mud alone 
were little or no ways affected by the 
shock. Of the original number of houses 
which escaped ruin, about one-third are 
much shattered. Bhooj stands in a plain 
of sand-stone covered with a thin soil of 
sand and clay, but in many parts the 
rock is exposed. To the north-east- 
ward about half a mile rises an abrupt 
hill, apparently composed of solid rock, 
on which are extensive fortifications. 
The north-eastern face of the town wall, 
which is a strong modern building,: on 
an average four and a half and five feet 
broad, and upwards of twenty feet high, 
was laid level nearly to the foundation ; 
whilst the hill-works suffered in a very 
trifling degree. The south and western 
sides of the town are situated upon a 
low ridge of sand rock, and the water 
from the town finds its way out to the 
northward, where is an extensive swamp 
of low and springy ground. . This face 
has also been overturned in many places, 
and not a hundred yards of entire wall 
left. The town has been utterly de- 
stroyed in the N.N.E. quarters, while 
the 8. and S.W. quarters stand compa- 
ratively little injured. I have entered 
thus particularly into minutisz, to ex- 
plain what I conceive to have been the 
case every where, that buildings situated 
upon rock were not by any means so 
much affected by the earthquake as those 
whose foundations did not reach the 
bottom of the soil, which I-conceive to 
have been the case with those houses 
on the swampy and low sides of Bhooj.* 
At 
* There are some strong exceptions to 
this observation: Rhoa, which is a fort 
on a rocky hill, was laid in ruins, while the 
lower town, on the plain, escaped un- 
damaged. Moondra, Mandree, and Sand- 
han, close to the sea shore, situated very 
low, and in sandy plains, escaped with little 
; damage. 
