258 Memoir on Indian Earthquakes [No. 136. 



the information connected with Earthquake shocks in India and its 

 frontier countries, both in regard to those that have already occurred, 

 and those that in future may occur, is the principal object proposed in 

 this investigation. In regard to the historical portion of the subject, 

 I cannot but feel conscious of its imperfections, since accounts of Indian 

 Earthquakes are in general so meagre in important details, and must 

 always be sought for under so many different sources, that to make 

 the enquiry perfect, would require an amount of leisure and literary 

 resources that very few, if indeed any, in this country, can command. 

 In tracing the history of our Earthquakes, I have, however, done all 

 I could with the materials at my disposal, and perhaps I may yet be 

 able to complete what I now feel to be so imperfect. 



More sanguine hopes of interesting results may, however, I think, 

 be entertained in regard to Earthquakes that may be experienced after 

 this time, since a general interest has been awakened in the subject, 

 and the attention of many intelligent and well qualified observers 

 attracted to it. Observations will moreover in future be centralised, and 

 the unsatisfactory labour of gleaning information from many detached 

 sources will be saved. Earthquakes are almost invariably observed 

 when the feelings are excited, and emotions adverse to a calm, deliberate 

 judgment on accompanying phenomena have sway. The greater the 

 scale on which the disturbing forces are exhibited, the more intense 

 will such feelings and emotions usually be, and in those very cases where 

 minute and careful observations would be of the greatest value, observers 

 are generally in a state the most unfavourable for making them. The 

 sensible and permanent effects of Earthquake shocks are frequently 

 detailed with painful minuteness, but those more temporary and evanes„ 

 cent, but at the same time, more immediately connected with the causes 

 to which such convulsions are due, are allowed to pass by unob- 

 served. The tendency to exaggerations induced by this state of mind 

 requires constant allowances to be made for the statements of obser- 

 vers, and we shall be able to estimate the amount of this allowance 

 only after the phenomena of Earthquakes have been brought to the 

 test of actual measurement by the use of appropriate recording instru- 

 ments. Such instruments have been brought into use by the Commit- 

 tee of the British Association, but they are yet far from being perfect ; 

 and before their full utility can be felt, their sensibility must be increas- 



