Feb. 1849. EARTHQUAKE AT TITALYA. 377 



accurately adjusted our watches (chronometers) the previous 

 morning, and the motion may therefore fairly be assumed to 

 have been transmitted northwards through the intervening 

 distance of forty miles, in two minutes. Both Mr. Muller 

 and Mr. Hodgson had noted a much more severe shock at 

 010 p.m. the previous evening, which I, who was walking 

 down the mountain, did not experience ; this caused a good 

 deal of damage at Dorjiling, in cracking well-built walls. 

 Earthquakes are frequent all along the Himalaya, and are 

 felt far in Tibet ; they are, however, most common towards 

 the eastern and western extremities of India ; owing in the 

 former case to the proximity of the volcanic forces in the 

 bay of Bengal. Cutch and Scinde, as is well known, have 

 suffered severely on many occasions, and in several of them 

 the motion has been propagated through Afghanistan and 

 Little Tibet, to the heart of Central Asia.* 



On the morning of the 1st of March, Dr. Campbell arrived 

 at the bungalow, from his tour of inspection along the fron- 

 tier of Bhotan and the Rungpore district; and we accompa- 

 nied him hence along the British and Sikkim frontier, as far 

 west as the Mechi river, which bounds Nepal on the east. 



Terai is a name loosely applied to a tract of country at the 

 very foot of the Himalaya : it is Persian, and signifies damp. 

 Politically, the Terai generally belongs to the hill-states 

 beyond it ; geographically, it should appertain to the plains 

 of India ; and geologically, it is a sort of neutral country, 

 being composed neither of the alluvium of the plains, nor 

 of the rocks of the hills, but for the most part of alter- 

 nating beds of sand, gravel, and boulders brought from the 

 mountains. Botanically it is readily defined as the region 

 of forest-trees ; amongst which the Sal, the most valuable 



* See " Wood's Travels to the Oxus." 



