EARTH FISSUHES AND SAND CRATERS. 51 



chance he had of being left in security, may be imagined , and though 

 I did not see it at the moment, fully accounted for the violent curses and 

 objurgations he called down upon my devoted head. After I had com- 

 pleted my trial, I climbed the banks and examined the country above ; 

 and I by no means assuaged the fakir's wrath by quietly indicating with 

 my stick the existence of several commencing cracks inside his abode. 

 I said nothing ; but it was clear that his abstraction in his holy duties 

 had by no means closed his eyes to the facts, and that he was fully 

 aware of the force of the warning he had received ; for I found that 

 while he had been driving a roaring trade in mulcting every boat which 

 passed of the richest offerings and other alms he could obtain, he had 

 also been quietly making arrangements for removing his abode to a 

 more secure locality, and I have no doubt that the part of the cliff 

 where he had his wretched hole is now in the river. 



Before passing on, I may as well state here that all the disturbance 

 caused by the great mass of clay and earth which had fallen into the 

 river, and the whirling currents and eddies resulting from this disturb- 

 ance, which was stated to have been for some days so great as entirely 

 to prevent the passing of boats at all, and which, even after the lapse 

 of two months, was such as to require the best efforts of the boatmen 

 in the small boat which did not draw more than 2 feet of water, 

 extending over more than two hours to enable them to overcome, had 

 ceased before I returned down the river in about a week's time and the 

 stream had, by the gradual removal of all the debris, and its being 

 carried down the stream and deposited elsewhere, resumed its normal or 

 nearly its normal condition. The wide stretch of loose sand just opposite 

 this sudden curve in the river, where the Barak diverges, shows clearly 

 that the cutting back of the bank there has been progressing for many 

 years. 



There could be no trustworthy evidence derived from the direction 

 of the fissures and cracks as to the direction of wave-motion for the 

 reason that the action had been exerted on masses well and effectively 

 supported on one side against the bank and without any support on the 



( r,i ) 



