a 
386 Miscellanies. 
same time a strong sulphureous smell. As you will suppose, the 
cities of Ava, Umerapora, and Sagaing, are vast piles of ruins, bury- 
ing in their fall great numbers of unfortunate people who were asleep 
at the awful moment. The destruction of life, however, is not so 
great as might have been expected from the entire overthrow of three 
“large and populouscities. The reason is, the great mass of the people 
live in wood and bamboo houses. Had the houses in these cities been 
built of bricks and stone, as cities are built in America, the entire 
population must have perished. Every thing built of bricks,—houses, 
monasteries, temples, pagodas, and the city walls, are all crumbled 
down. Of all the immense number of pagodas in Ava, Umerapora, 
and Sagaing, and on the Sagaing hills opposite to Ava, not one is 
standing. he Jabor and wealth of ages, the pride and glory of 
Boodhism, have been laid low in the dust in one awful moment. * * * 
‘* Letters from Ava up to the 11th of April, inform us that the rum- 
bling noise, like distant thunder, had not yet ceased ; and shocks, often 
considerably violent, were felt day and night, with seldom as much as 
one hour’s intermission. The extent of the great shock, or rather 
the succession of great shocks on the morning of the 23d of March, 
is not yet fully ascertained. It was felt so severely in Maulmein, that 
many sprang out of bed, supposing a gang of thieves had broken into 
the house, yet it was not violent enough to do any damage. As far 
as is now ascertained, Prome to the south, and Bomee to the north 
of Ava, were entirely overthrown by the earthquake ; so that from 
Prome to the borders of China, more than six hundred miles north 
and south, embracing the most populous parts of the empire, nota 
single pagoda, temple, or brick building is left standing. The earth- 
quake was severe in Arracan, and an old volcano on the island of 
Bromree was re-opened, and the long-concealed fires, mingled with 
smoke and ashes, rose to a fearful height. It remains to be ascer- 
tained, how far this great earthquake extended into China; but as 
there are several volcanoes among the mountains between Burmah 
and China, it is more than probable to me that there are subterranean 
communications between these volcanoes in the north and the volca- 
noes to the south, as among the mountains between Arracan and Bur- 
mah, and in the island of Bromree, and also on the Andeman islands 
in the Martiban gulf. 
“The two extremes are more than one thousand miles apart, in a 
direct line north and south. But the fact that the whole intermediate 
country was shaken at the same moment, and a prodigious subterra- 
nean noise was heard, resembling the rolling of thunder, is, I think, 
satisfactory evidence that there are subterranean communications be- 
ween these widely separated volcanoes. How else can we account 
