GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF EFFECTS OF EARTHQUAKE. 29 



quarter of an hour after the shock, not half of an hour, as stated above. 

 No Government buildings were injured, but the walls of two or three 

 private houses were cracked. 



Nowgong. — The Executive Engineer reported a terrible earthquake 

 at 5h. lOin. p.m. on the 10th, which lasted more than two minutes. 

 Furniture in houses was all thrown about; the water in the river rose 

 and fell 2 or 3 feet ; boats were torn from their moorings, &c. The 

 Executive Engineer's office was reduced to a heap of ruins ; hardly a 

 square yard of solid wall being left. The Deputy Commissioner's Court 

 suffered much, the walls were kutcha-pucka, and had either fallen down 

 in a lump, or were left so insecure that they had to be taken down. The 

 jail wall, although standing, was left in a very shattered condition. 

 The hospital of the Jail, a new building lately completed by the Public 

 Works Department, was cracked all over, but especially at the upper 

 corners of the doors and windows. The school house escaped, "the 

 brick-work seems to have been better put together than that of the 

 other buildings." The old church was cracked all over.— Executive 

 Engineer, under date January 11th. 



The weather for a day or two before the 10th was exceedingly 

 sultry. A rumbling noise like smothered thunder approaching from 

 a distance preceded the shock, and accompanied its passage, sounding as 

 if from deep in the earth. The undulations were very violent. The 

 water in the river was affected [as though a steamer had passed, and 

 continued so for some time. It is rumoured that the earth is cracked 

 and fissured in some parts of the district. The wall of the cutchery 

 (court-house) was thrown down, and the whole edifice shaken beyond 

 repair. The Jail wall and the hospital cracked ; the church is cracked 

 from top to bottom, and other brick buildings much shaken or destroyed. 

 The shock was stated to have been from east to- west.— {Major Lloyd, 

 Deputy Commissioner.) 



Gauhdti. — Colonel Davies, Chief Engineer of Assam, reported on 

 the 22nd January that at this station the earthquake had been very 

 severe, was felt at 5h. lorn. p.m. ; the direction was north to 



( 29 ) 



