6 OLDHAM: THE CACHAR EARTHQUAKE OF IOtII JANUARY 1869. 



The shock of 10th January 1869 came on at £ to 5 p.m. with a 

 gently undulating movement, which, however, rapidly increased, until 

 neither men nor animals could keep their legs, hut were thrown down, 

 and such things as bottles, glasses, lamps, were upset, and the gumlas 

 were half emptied of water. The water in tanks and rivers was violently 

 agitated, and the Barak rose in huge waves, and wrecked numbers of boats. 

 The landslips caused were numerous and extensive, and many homesteads 

 were carried down into the stream. 



The old cemetery at Silchar is a rectangular enclosure, secured by 

 walls of coarse brick masonry with heavy mortar joints, the mortar 

 showing only a very wretched power of adhesion. This wall had been 

 built more than twelve years. "Within the limits of the cemetery there 

 are a good many monuments of various kinds, but the large space is by 

 no means filled. Naturally I had anticipated that some of these 

 structures would have shown evidence of the force of disturbance to 

 which they had been subjected, and had been, therefore, surprised to 

 "find no reference, in any of the accounts published previously to my 

 visit, to any injury done. I was, therefore, the more gratified to find, on 

 visiting the place, some of the most valuable and important evidence 

 that Silchar afforded as to the nature and direction of the shock ; indeed 

 the most valuable which I met with anywhere. 



The first thing which struck me on approaching the enclosure, which 

 lies a little to the north of the main road passing east and west through 

 Silchar, was that the gate of the enclosure was all down. The gate was 

 of wood, solid below with vertical bars above, in two parts or wings join- 

 ing in the centre, and fastened solely by a bolt. These gates were carried 

 by nearly square masonry pillars measuring 1' 8" x 1' 6" which again 

 were supported by and connected with the walls surrounding the cemetery 

 enclosure by a raised step in the wall. The plain square pillars were 

 topped by simple capitals capped or finished by small spherical gurrahs 

 or earthen pots inverted and secured- by being imbedded in mortar on 

 the summit of the pillar. This was 8 feet from the level of the ground, 

 The elevation of the gates as they originally stood given in Pl.IX, fig. 1, 

 ( 6 ) 



