1822.] the Sources of the Rivers Ganges and Jumna.” 45 
a piece of rock called Bhagirat’hi-Sita, and is about 20 feet 
higher than the bed of the Ganges ; and immediately above its 
right bank, there is also a rough wooden building at a short 
distance for the shelter of travellers. By the river’s side, there 
is. in some places soil where small cedars grow; but in general 
the margin is strewed with masses of rock, which fall from the 
precipices above. ‘The falls do not appear recent. 
Too much tired to attempt to boil mercury in the tubes to 
day. At night, having prepared the instruments to take the 
immersion of one of Jupiter’s satellites, we laid down to rest, but 
between 10 and 11 o’clock were awakened by the rocking of the 
ground, and, on running out, soon saw the effects of an earth- 
quake, and the dreadful situation in which we were, pitched in 
the midst of masses of rock, some of them more than 100 feet 
in diameter, and which had fallen from the cliffs above us, and 
probably brought down by some former earthquake. 
The scene around us, shown in all its dangers by the bright 
moonlight, was indeed very awful. Onthe second shock, rocks 
were hurled in every direction from the peaks around to the bed 
of the river, with a hideous noise not to be described, and never 
to be forgotten. After the crash caused by the falls near us had 
ceased, we could still hear the terrible sounds of heavy falls in 
the more distant recesses of the mountains. 
We looked up with dismay at the cliffs over head, expecting 
that the next shock would detach some ruins from them. Had 
they fallen, we could not have escaped, as the fragments from the 
summit would have flown over our heads, and we should have 
been buried by those from the middle. 
Providentially there were no more shocks that night. This 
earthquake was smartly felt in all parts of the mountains, as well 
as in the plains of the north-west provinces of Hindustan. 
In the morning we removed to the left bank of the river, where 
there is a bed of sand of about 150 yards wide ; there isa flat of 
soil with trees of about 20 yards wide, and immediately above it 
are precipices with snow on them; here we were much more 
secure. In the afternoon indeed, the effects of the snow melt- 
ing, often caused pieces of rock to fall from above, too near our 
station, but we could avoid them by running over the sand to 
the river side, which could not be done on the right bank ; 
besides only comparatively small pieces fell here, and in day 
light, so that this is much the best side to encamp on. We had 
the curiosity to measure trigonometrically the height of the cliff, 
at the foot of which we were during the shock, and found it to 
be 2745 feet. 
This day, the 27th, we hada slight shock of an earthquake, 
as well as on the 28th. 
Filled a new and full length ciean tube with pure mercury ; 
immediately after filling (unboiled), it stood at 20 inches. 
