GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF EFFECTS OF EARTHQUAKE. 17 



to south-south-west. The palm trees all rocked so, and the ripples in 

 the river were in this direction. From the peculiar tremulous, " almost 

 stinging" sensation experienced in the feet, the Executive Engineer 

 thinks there must have been two shocks at same time, one commencing 

 from the west ( ? east) crossed by another from the northward. A second 

 shock occurred ten minutes after, and another 50 minutes later. At 

 7 p.m. a fourth, all much slighter than the first ; the steeple of the church 

 was shattered in all directions, two pinnacles fell and two were shifted. 

 Court-houses and circuit bungalow heavily cracked. Pendulum clocks 

 were stopped, vessels of water had their contents thrown out, &c, a large 

 looking glass in circuit-house was thrown from the table and broken 

 to pieces. — {Executive Engineer, 11th January.) 



Pola (58 miles east of Sylhet.) — The overseer of the Sylhet and 

 Cachar road states that he was at Pola when a violent earthquake took 

 place. The shocks were violent for five or six minutes, and then abated 

 and ended in three minutes more. He was obliged to sit down and 

 hold on to the ground. About 600 feet west of the Pola River and 200 

 feet south of the Barak River, the earth cracked in several places, and 

 sank 4 feet deep. The shocks were from south to north, and the 

 water of the Barak River boiled, shook, roared and ran with tremendous 

 force against the current northward, rising 6 feet over a sandbank ; the 

 houses on the north bank of the rivers were shaken into an inclined 

 position. All the country between the Pola and Dhullesur Rivers was 

 rent into cracks from 3 to 9 inches wide, and from which hot 

 water, and sand soft and black, were thrown out with considerable force 

 and deposited on the ground to a height in some places of more than 

 3 feet. On the west bank of the Pola the road was 4 feet high, but has 

 sunk level with the main land. 



From Pola to Thittia, as he passed up immediately after the earth- 

 quake, the hot water was rushing out of the cracks in the road, pro- 

 ducing great heat and a sulphureous stench, and hot, black, soft sand 

 was deposited over the cracked ground and excavations, which were from 

 3 to 4 feet deep, and filled with the same. 



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