240 MR. ft. 1). OLbHAM OX the [vol. lxxix, 



Turkestan) it was noticed, as a slight undulation, only by a few 

 people. 



In a northerly direction it is reported that the waters of the 

 Kara-Kul Lake surged over the eastern, low-lying, hank for a 

 distance of about half a verst (1750 feet) leaving a bank of ice 

 behind on their retirement. In the Alai district it was feebly felt, 

 in about the same degree as at Tashkurgan. 



Westwards the shock was severe, and caused great alarm through- 

 out the districts of Shignan and Roshan. At Khorog a sub- 

 terranean rumbling was noticed, great alarm was caused; but no 

 damage reported. At Ishkashim the earthquake was severe, and 

 followed at intervals by feebler ones. No damage to buildings 

 was done. 



The seismic area of this shock must have extended into Afghan 

 territory, across the Oxus, but no records on which any reliance 

 can be placed are available. Col. Spilko quotes reports that 300 

 houses were destroyed and 460 people killed in Kabul, 60 houses 

 and 240 deaths at Kala-i-Yavun, 70 houses and 2 deaths at 

 Konabad, and a few houses (but no deaths) at Faisabad. The 

 first-named of these, unless some place which I cannot identify is 

 meant, obviously cannot refer to this earthquake. The other 

 reports, if accepted, must refer to a different earthquake, or else 

 indicate that this, like some of the Calabrian shocks, had two 

 distinct centres of greatest intensity ; more probably, however, the 

 reports are either greatly exaggerated, or wholly imaginary. 



These accounts allow of the formation of an approximate 

 estimate of the magnitude of the earthquake. The centre of 

 greatest intensity lay not far from Oroshor, the headquarters of the 

 district of the same name, or between it and the junction of 

 the Tanimas aud Murghab valleys. The central area, over which 

 the intensity was at least VIII° R.F., 1 extended from about Sarez 

 on the east to beyond Basic! on the west, the dimension in this 

 direction being at least 40 miles ; in the transverse direction the 

 dimension is indeterminable, as population and communications 

 are confined to the valleys. The outer limit of the area over which 

 the shock was at all sensible can be fairly well fixed in an easterly 

 direction at about 150 miles from the centre ; in a southerly 

 direction the limit was probably about the same ; on the west the 

 distance would be about 220 miles from the centre, if the earth- 

 quake was really felt at Konabad (Khanabad). As has been pointed 

 out, however, all the reports from Afghan territory are A'ery un- 

 certain, and the authentic records suggest that the limit in this 

 direction was less than on the east, possibly not more than 100 

 miles ; on the north the limit seems to have been much the same, 

 or about 100 miles. The actual dimensions of the region in- 

 cluded by the II R.F. isoseist may be put at about 250 square 



1 Col. Spilko gives the intensity as VIII over the whole of this region ; but 

 the accounts reproduced by him and the description by Sir Aurel Stein (quoted 

 later) show that over the greater part of it the intensity must have ranged 

 higher, and reached at least X°. 



