564 Account of the Earthquake at Kathmandi. [Nov. 
means improbable that we owe the idols of Bamidan to the caprice of 
some person of rank, who resided in this cave-digging neighbourhood, 
and sought for an immortality in the colossal images which we have 
now described. 
II.— Account of the Earthquake at Kathmandé. By A. Campbell, Esq. 
Assistant Surgeon, attached to the Residency. 
On the 26th of August last, about 6 o’clock p. m. a smart shock of 
earthquake was experienced throughout the valley, and the neigh- 
bouring hills, westward in the valley of Nayakot and Dény Byas ; 
eastward at Panout?, Baneppa, Dulkele, and Pholam Chék ; and south- 
ward at Chitlong, Chisagarhy, Etounda, and Bissoulea. The shock 
was preceded by arumbling noise from ‘the eastward. The motion 
of the earth was undulatory, as of a large raft floating on the ocean, 
and the direction of the swell was from north-east towards south- 
west. The shock lasted about 1 minute. At 10-45* p. m. of the 
same day another shock of equal duration and of the same character 
occurred, and at 10-58, a third and most violent one commenced: at 
first it was a gentle motion of the earth, accompanied by a slight rum- 
bling noise; soon however it increased to a fearful degree, the earth 
heaved as a ship at sea, the trees waved from their roots, and houses 
moved to and fro far from the perpendicular. Horses and other cat- 
tle, terrified, broke from their stalls, and it was difficult to walk with- 
out staggering as a landsman does on ship-board. This shock lasted 
for about three minutes in its fullest force. And the following is as cor- 
rect an estimate as can be ascertained (without official documents) of 
the damage done by it to life and property throughout the great valley 
and neighbouring districts of Nipal. It is believed that the two first 
shocks were harmless. 
* Not by chronometer, but by a good-going clock, which stopped during the great 
shock. Its pendulum vibrated north and south. [If the clock wasset by the 
sun, the shock must have been 51m. earlier than in Calcutta.—Ep.] 
+ Doctor Campbell’s subsequent letters inform us, that there have been frequent 
shocks of less violence since the above, many of which (on the 4th and 18th Oct. 
particularly) were felt at Calcutta, Monghyr, Chittagong, Allahabad, and Jabalpar, 
nearly simultaneously. On the 26th Oct. he writes, “ At 10h. 45m. a. mM. a sharp 
shock of the dangerous or undulating kind occurred. The embassy has returned 
from China, and I am informed that the great shock was not felt at Lassa, so that 
it would appear to have been confined to India within the Himalaya,’”’—Eb. 
