part 3] PAMIR EARTHQUAKE OF FEBRUARY 1911. 239 



the examination of the great landslip and the lake produced by it, 

 but incidentally gives a general account of the earthquake derived 

 from official and other reports ; reference is made to accounts and 

 reports in newspapers, but all that is important, for the present 

 purpose, seems to have been incorporated by him. 



The earthquake took place on the night of the 5th-6th February, 

 1911 (O.S.), the time, as locally determined, varying from 11.15 p.m. 

 to 1.20 a.m. 1 The central region lay close to the junction of the 

 Tanimas with the Murghab, or Bartang, river, in about lat. 38° 

 15' ~N., long. 72° 38' E., and here the destruction, not only of 

 villages but of roads, bridges, and all means of communication, 

 was so complete that nearly six weeks had passed before news 

 could reach either the military headquarters at the Pamir Post, 

 or the civil headquarters at Khorog. Two attempts to reach the 

 devastated region were made : Capt. Zaimkin was despatched down 

 the Murghab valley, and at Sarez found further progress impos- 

 sible ; while, from the Oxus valley, the official despatched by the 

 Governor of Roshan found his progress towards Oroshor, the 

 headquarters of the district, stopped by complete destruction of 

 the roadway, at some place unspecified, before he could reach his 

 destination. According to Col. Spilko's account, written two 

 years later, the total loss of life amounted to 302 men, women, 

 and children ; details are given of separate villages and settle- 

 ments, some of which I have been unable to find on any map ; 

 but the easternmost of those that I have been able to identify is 

 Sarez, which escaped rather lightly with a loss of some houses and 

 no deaths, and the westernmost Basid, which was almost completely 

 destroyed. The distance between these two places is about 35 miles 

 in a direct line ; but the region over which the earthquake reached 

 a destructive degree of violence evidently exceeded this limit, for 

 it is recorded that the first news of the disaster that reached the 

 Oxus valley was brought by a plucky Tajik, a resident of Basid, 

 who descended the Bartang in a native boat (probably an inflated 

 skin), and from this account it is evident that the destruction of 

 the roadway and interruption of all land communication extended 

 for some distance westwards, or downstream, from Basid. In this 

 region, besides the destruction of buildings, of bridges, and of the 

 galleries by which the roads were carried round the faces of cliffs, 

 caused by the direction of the earthquake, there were numerous 

 landslips, which will be dealt with later. 



In an easterly direction the earthquake was strongly felt at the 

 Pamir Post, where it is said to have lasted two minutes, accom- 

 panied b} T a subterranean rumbling, was severe enough to make 

 all the inhabitants leave their houses, and caused clocks to stop. 

 A second shock an hour later is reported. Some cracks were 

 formed in buildings. At Kizil Robat the shock was felt in about 

 the same degree, and at Rangkul and Tashkurgan (in Chinese 



1 The time, as determined from distant records, would be about 18h. 41m. 

 Greenwich mean time, or 23h. 31m. local time. 



