1044 Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. [No. 144. 



my knowledge, been kept. Shocks continued, however, to be experi- 

 enced in that valley up to a period later than recorded in any of the 

 Journals of the British prisoners in Affghanistan which I have yet seen. 

 Two are noticed in the Register for 1842 : namely, the Earthquake of 

 the 21st July 1842, and that of the 25th of October of the same year, 

 and with the latter, our information relative to the Earthquakes of the 

 valley of Jellalabad terminates. 



There are some very interesting points connected with the Earth- 

 quakes of this tract to be discussed, but I reserve all comment upon 

 them until I enter upon the third part of this memoir. 



C. Earthquakes of the Valley of Cashmere. 



From remote antiquity, Earthquakes are known to have been experi- 

 enced throughout the valley of Cashmere, but so far as I yet know, the 

 dates of these have not been recorded, nor have any of their phenomena 

 been described. The shocks, however, have never been of great violence, 

 although it has been found necessary to provide against their effects by 

 employing wood largely in building.* In describing the Juma Musjid, or 



* Since the above was written, I have been favoured with a sight of a copy of 

 Vigne's Travels in Cashmere, by Dr. Jameson, in which some detailed information 

 relative to Earthquakes in the valley is to be found. It is too late now to include 

 this in the body of the memoir, and I am therefore obliged to give it in this form. 



"On the night of the 26th June 1828," Mr. Vigne remarks, (vol. i, 281,) "at half 

 past ten, a very severe shock was felt, which shook down a great many houses and 

 killed a great number of people: perhaps 1,000 persons were killed and 1,200 houses 

 shaken down: although being built with a wooden frame-work, the houses are less 

 liable to fall than an edifice of brick or stone. The earth opened in several places 

 about the city : and foetid water, rather warm, rose rapidly from the clefts and then 

 subsided. These clefts being in the soil, soon closed again, and left scarcely any 

 traces. I saw the remains of one fifteen yards long and two wide : but it was filled up 

 or nearly so. Huge rocks and stones came rattling down from the mountains. On 

 that night only one shock took place: but just before sun-rise there was another, ac- 

 companied by a terrific and lengthened explosion, louder than a cannon. On that day 

 there were twenty such shocks, each with a similar explosion. 



" The inhabitants were of course in the open country. The river sometimes appeared 

 to stand still, and then to rush forward. For the remaining six days of Zillheja, and 

 the whole of the two next months of Moharrem and Safur, there were never less than 

 100, and sometimes 200 or more shocks in the day, each accompanied by an explosion : 

 but it was remarked, that when the explosion was loudest, the shock was the less. On 

 the sixth day (after the great shock?) there was one very bad shock, and on the 

 fifteenth, at three o'clock, was the worst, and there were three out of the whole number 

 that were very loud. 



" At the end of the two above-mentioned months, the number decreased to ten or fif- 

 teen in the 24 hours, the noise became less, and the Earthquakes gradually ceased. About 

 this time the cholera made its appearance. A census of the dead was taken at first, but it 

 was discontinued when it was found that many thousands had died in twenty-one days. 



" In Cashmere there had been no great Earthquake before, within the memory of 

 any living person, excepting one about 50 years ago, which was rather severe, and 

 lasted at intervals for a week. An Earthquake is mentioned in Prinsep's Tables, as 

 having taken place in a. d. 1552. Shocks are now common, and the houses are built 

 with a wooden frame-work so as to resist them. They are still more common I should 

 say at Kabool, where I have felt three or four in four months : but they are usually too 



slight to do harm. 

 Ti 



'be following is Mr. Vigne's account of the " burning ground" alluded to above. 

 " The most singular place in Cashmere is Sahoyum, the " burning ground" mention- 

 ed by Abul Fuzl, in the Ayin Akberi. It lies near the village of Nichi-Hama, in 

 the pergunnah of Muchipoora, at the north-west end of the valley where the plain is 

 about 6100 feet in height. About thirty-six years ago, an intense heat was found to 



