1 72 Papers relating to the Earthquake 



opinion is that it lasted nearly two minutes. The motion of 

 the earth during this period was most awful and alarming, 

 giving to most people the feeling as if it was about to open 

 and swallow every thing up. In this short space the town of 

 Bhooj, nearly three miles in circumference, became almost a 

 heap of ruins ; most of the houses were thrown down, and 

 the greater part of the ramparts and towers, with the guns, 

 were precipitated into the ditch. Nothing was seen by those 

 at a distance but a thick cloud of dust. The same occurred 

 in a greater or less degree in every town and fort from the 

 eastern extremity of Wagur to Luckput on the Indus ; and 

 even the smallest villages have been levelled with the ground. 



The shock appeared to increase in violence as it continued, 

 and suddenly to stop, leaving a kind of tremour ; some people 

 said it was preceded by a noise like thunder or the rattling of 

 a number of carriages, but this was not generally observed. 

 Difference of opinion also exists as to the kind of motion that 

 took place ; some people considering it was undulatory, others 

 as a kind of tremour, and others again as coming directly 

 upwards. The last kind of motion appeared to me very evi- 

 dent, though being at the time surrounded by houses and 

 walls falling in every direction, I might not be so well able to 

 judge. I felt as if the force was acting directly where I stood, 

 and as if the earth was making an effort to burst immediately 

 under my feet. People appear to differ as much as to the 

 quarter from which the shock came ; nor is it to be ascer- 

 tained from any general direction in which the walls of the 

 towns or houses have fallen : they appear to have tumbled in 

 every direction indiscriminately, and frequently one half of 

 the same wall has fallen on one side and the other half on 

 the other. 



As far as I have been able to ascertain, in no place has the 

 surface of the earth suffered any important alteration from the 

 shock. There are reports of fire having issued from hills to 

 the westward of Bhooj, but I do not think they will be found 

 correct. On the 17th I travelled between Bhooj and Anjar, 

 a distance of twenty-seven miles, and part of the road through 

 hills ; and though I looked carefully in every direction, I could 

 perceive no recent changes. In the bunds of tanks and the 

 steep banks of ravines, small rents could be perceived : in the 

 hard rocky soil, which forms the general surface of the coun- 

 try, no alteration was to be seen. After the shock several dry 

 rivers became filled with water, which afterwards gradually 

 subsided. About A njar the water in the wells became of a 

 milky colour, but was not altered in taste. 



With respect to the places affected by the shock, Anjar 



and 



