CHAP. 4.] EARTHQUAKES. 43 



while there appears to have been nothing to prevent its turning aside 

 over the lower ground to the east or west. 



If the old channel was not entirely filled up^ but a passage of some 

 6 or 8 feet deep remained open, this would still leave the obstruction, 

 so much higher than the river bank above that it seems hardly possible 

 for the stream to have avoided seeking another course, unless the country 

 to the east and west of the river is much higher than would appear 

 likely from its situation. 



From the amount of detail given in Captain Baker's profile section, 

 it seems to have been very carefully constructed, but the difiiculty 

 still remains that, if correct, the country on each side of the Lower 

 Pooraun cannot be flat ; or if it be so, the stream must have preferred 

 to ascend a rising ground, opening a new channel across it 20 feet 

 deep and four miles long, rather than to seek the lowest level in the 

 neighbourhood. 



On the whole, while it is impossible to assert that some trifling 

 elevation may not have taken place, it seems improbable that this 

 amounted to 'throwing up a bund' 10, 16, 18, or 20^ feet in 

 height. 



Otherwise, if the maximum subsidence at Sindree took place aloi^g 

 a somewhat irregular Kne corresponding to the place of the Allah Bund, 

 and leaving the level of the ground to the northward but slightly, 

 if at all, altered, then a bank or scarp, like that of the Allah Bund, 

 might naturally result, its length being conterminous with that of the 

 depression and its height marking the amount of this depression. Seen 

 from Sindree, within the depressed area, rising beyond the widely spread- 

 ing inundation, such a bank would assume the appearance of a low hiU, 

 and present a marked feature in a view which had previously been 

 bounded by a distant line to all appearance as level as the horizon of the 

 sea itself. 



( 13 ) 



