88 OLDHAM : THE CACHAR EARTHQUAKE OP IOtH JANUARY 1869. 



no such difficulty would exist to the south ; nor would the structure of 

 the country oppose any great obstacle to the transmission of the shock in 

 that direction ; and we should therefore be able to trace the shock down 

 the shores of the Bay of Bengal to a point further from the seismic ver- 

 tical than the furthest point on the west at which the shock was felt. 

 But such is by no means the case, and we must consequently acknowledge 

 that the fissure in which the shock originated ran nearer north and 

 south than east and west. 



How then is this conclusion to be reconciled with that obtained from 

 the evidence of the direction of the shock ? If the map is examined, it will 

 be noticed that, with a single exception, all the stations at which the direc- 

 tion of shock was obtainable bear from south to south- 30°- west of the 

 seismic vertical and that the single station which is not so situated lie3 

 nearly due west. Of lines so drawn, the intersections must necessarily 

 form a series very narrow from north to south and broad from east to 

 west. It is therefore evident that, though the observations of direction 

 of the shock have given the position of the seismic vertical, we cannot 

 trust them in determining the size and dimensions of the seismic 

 focus which, unfortunately, cannot be otherwise determined. 



