1843.] Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. 259 



ed considerably beyond the point to which it has yet been carried. 

 This will no doubt ere long be accomplished, and the details of the 

 phenomena of Earthquake shocks be removed from the ill-defined pro- 

 vince of feeling, and brought under that of measured space and number. 



The chief obstacle to the introduction of such recording instruments 

 as are alluded to above, throughout the Earthquake tracts of India, 

 will probably be found in the incessant fluctuations of society, and the 

 consequent impossibility of obtaining consecutive series of observa- 

 tions. In reflecting on this point, it has appeared to me, that the most 

 permanent local establishments in the country are the mission stations, 

 and that if Missionaries residing in favourable localities, could be in- 

 duced to receive and record observations with our instruments, they 

 would confer a boon upon science at a very trifling sacrifice of time 

 or labour in the cause. Earthquakes usually occur at distant intervals, 

 and the observations required upon them, are neither complicated 

 nor laborious. I would therefore hope to obtain in course of time 

 the co-operatron of those members of favourably situated mission 

 establishments, who may not be unwilling to devote a limited por- 

 tion of their time and talents to the elucidation of what is certainly 

 one of the most interesting chapters of the physical history of India. 

 Meanwhile, however, until arrangements can be matured for supply- 

 ing instruments to those willing to receive them, I trust I shall con- 

 tinue to receive the interesting communications of those observers who 

 have so zealously assisted me during the past year, and for whose aid 

 I feel most grateful. Their individual labour will come more appro- 

 priately under notice in another page ; but I am desirous of expressing 

 to one and all, my acknowledgment of their valuable assistance, since 

 to it must be traced all the interest that this investigation may 

 possess. 



To the gentlemen connected with the public press of India, espe- 

 cially to Messrs. Stocqueler and Place, Editors respectively of the Cal- 

 cutta Englishman and Delhi Gazette, I am indebted for essential aid, 

 and I trust I may continue to receive from them such notices of 

 Earthquake shocks, as from time to time, may be made public in their 

 papers. 



My information relative to Earthquakes in the presidencies of Ma- 

 dras and Bombay is, I regret to say, extremely limited. In both there 



