1040 Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. [No. 144. 



occasionally experienced to the Westward of Cabool, and especially 

 felt at Herat, but I regret to say I have not succeeded in procuring any 

 information connected with them, beyond the mere fact of their occur- 

 rence. Details of Earthquakes at Herat are given, I understand, in the 

 Zil-Zillee-Nahmah, a native work on the subject, and as I hope shortly 

 to receive a copy of this book, most kindly procured for me from Cash- 

 mere by George Clerk, Esq. Envoy to the court of Lahore, I may be 

 able at a future time to give some account of them. 



A. Earthquakes of the Valley of Cabool. 



The earliest notice of an Earthquake in the valley of Cabool which 

 I have found, is of that which occurred in the year 1505, during the 

 reign of the Emperor Baber. Lieut. Burnes, (the late Sir Alexander 

 Burnes,) thus alludes to this event in a paper on the Reg-Rewan, a 

 singular phenomenon of sound near Cabool, published in vol. VII, Jour. 

 As. Soc. p. 325, " Convulsions of nature are, however, exceedingly 

 common in this part of the world. Baber mentions one to have occur- 

 red in his time, and in this very plain, so that "in some places the 

 ground was elevated to the height of an elephant above its old level, 

 and in others as much depressed." The same event is thus adverted 

 to in Daw's translation of Ferishta's History of Hindoostan. " In the 

 year 911 H. (A. D. 1505,) Cabulistan was thrown into great conster- 

 nation by dreadful Earthquakes, which laid most of the cities in ruins. 

 Baber endeavoured to alleviate this public calamity in such a manner 

 that by his unwearied care, and extensive benevolence, he gained the 

 love and fidelity of all his new subjects." 



The Earthquake of 1505, must have been one of great violence, 

 judging from the alterations of the levels of the ground mentioned by 

 Baber, and the extensive destruction of the cities alluded to by Fe- 

 rishta. Perhaps in both some allowance must be made for oriental 

 exaggeration, but Baber was so remarkable for his minute observations 

 on all natural phenomena which interested him, that less allowance is 

 called for in his case, than in others. From its effects the shock ap- 

 pears to have been felt over nearly the whole of A Afghanistan, and the 

 parts which suffered so severely were probably Cabool, Candahar, 

 Ghuzni, and Jellalabad, with others of less note. 



A long interval of upwards of three centuries, now occurs during 

 which time I have found no reference to Earthquake shocks in the 

 Cabool valley. That they continued frequently to be felt, I have no 

 doubt, as the inhabitants had become so far familiarised with their 

 phenomena, as to have terms in their language for the varieties of 

 shocks. " A passing shake with a rumbling noise," remarks Sir A. 

 Burnes, in the paper previously quoted, "is called * Goozur,' to dis- 

 tinguish it from Zil-Zillee, or Earthquake, which the inhabitants deno- 

 minate a motion that is tremulous." And from time immemorial it 

 has been found necessary to construct the larger number of the houses 

 at Cabool, of wood, to enable them to resist better, the constantly re- 

 curring shocks. In the year 1808, Mr. Elphinstone (Journey to the 

 Court of Cabool, vol. ii, p. 173,) " Most of the buildings of Cabool are 



