28 OLDHAM : THE CACIIAR EARTHQUAKE OF 10'ITI JANUARY 18G9. 



severe. In one house, three clocks, one of which stood south-west and 

 north-east, and one south-east and north-west, were stopped by the first 

 shock. Twenty minutes after the great shock, repeated peals, like 

 the sound of distant artillery, were heard in the direction of Sibsaugor. 

 No damage was done beyond a few cracks in the pucka houses of the 

 statiou j the public buildings remained uninjured, except that a crack 

 in the church, produced by an earthquake fifteen years before, was 

 re-opened. 



LaJchimpur. — The earthquake is said to have been felt at about 

 10 minutes after 5 p.m. on the 10th. The shocks lasted for nearly 

 two minutes and-a-half, and appeared to proceed from the south-west 

 passing off to the north-east. The movement was described as a 

 vast undulation which seemed to invest the solid earth with the motion 

 of a great storm wave, before which the trees bent and rocked in 

 the most extraordinary and fearful manner. Riders were compelled to 

 dismount from their ponies, and even then kept their feet with difficulty. 

 It was accompanied by a low rumbling noise, the motion creating a feel- 

 ing of nausea. Half an hour after the great shock there was a second 

 one, less severe, which was accompanied by several distinct reports like the 

 firing of distant cannon. l Nearly an hour after the first, a still slighter 

 shock occurred, and second slight shocks were noticed during the 

 night. They recurred again at 4h. a.m. on the morning of the 12th, 

 at 3 p.m. on the afternoon of the 13th, and again at 4h. a.m. on 

 the morning of the 14th (Englishman, January 27th). Another corre- 

 spondent stated that "shelling " had been heard every day since the 10th. 

 Another report states that the loud explosive noises were heard about a 



1 These noises, like artillery reports, are among the most unaccountable of all the 

 concomitants of this'.earthquake, the area over which they werejkenrd heing at once so exten- 

 sive and so limited — extensive, inasmuch as the reports from Lukimpur, Sibsagur, and Jaipur 

 show that they must have been heard over an area of at least 200 square miles ; limited, 

 inasmuch as they were not heard anywhere else over the vast area affected by the shock. 

 The smallness of the area over which they were heard, coupled with the fact that that is 

 placed at the extreme north-east of the seismic area, show that they can have been but 

 a secondary effect of the earthquake. — R. D. O. 



( 28 ) 



