PREVIOUS NOTICES. 39 



into the river, the ground along the valley was much rent and the houses, 

 structures of poles and matting, were in many instances thrown over." 



The peak of Sherfaisip, also in the north Cachar range and one of its 

 culminating points, 5,612 feet, is about 26§ miles almost due west 

 of where Captain Godwin-Austen's camp was near Assaloo. On this 

 peak a heliotroper was stationed, and his account is given : — " He was 

 on the peak by himself, sitting at the station mark with his heliotrope, 

 facing east ready in case he was required to show to Mahadeo; all 

 was still, and he was likely to hear and notice any peculiar sound. 

 He says that about 15 or 20 minutes before the shock, he heard 

 the sound of a distant cannon {fdj> was the word used) as if fired some 

 30 or 40 miles distant. Before the shock came on, he heard the rumbling 

 coming from the east, and when he felt it he caught hold of the 

 heliotrope, but that the motion was so great he was thrown backwards. 

 He distinctly says the motion passed away towards Marangsi peak, 

 situated west-north-west from his station." 



I quote this paragraph at full, because this man's statement of the 

 motion at Sherfainsip coming from the east, coupled with the observation 

 of Captain Godwin-Austen himself at Assaloo that the motion there 

 was from the west, is made the basis of a long discussion of the origin, 

 locality, and direction of action of the earthquake forces. Here it is said 

 "it is most interesting to find two well-selected points, 26 miles apart 

 situated nearly due east and west of each other; at the first the waves 

 were travelling eastward, at the second westward, this places the diver- 

 gence of the forces between the two." 



Now, if we examine the evidence on which the statement is based 

 we shall first find that in neither case was the direction truly east or west; 

 and in this latter case the only evidence of the force having come from 

 the east was the impression on the man's mind that the rumbling he 

 heard, before feeling the shock, came from the east. If we consider for 

 a moment the exceeding difficulty of deciding correctly the point from 

 which a sound comes, the frequent and constant reflections which any such 

 sound wave in the atmosphere meets with, and the very numerous cases in 



( 39 ) 



