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 populous cities. 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. The labor and weallh of ages, the pride and glory of 

 Boudhism, 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, not a 

 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- 

 tween these widely separated volcanoes. How else can we account 



