1843.] Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. 1047 



bell says, " I felt it was travelling with the speed of lightning towards 

 the West, and just under my feet : the houses shook most violently, and 

 trees, shrubs, and the smallest plants were set in motion, not shaking, 

 but waving to and fro from their very roots." No injury to life or 

 property was done by this first shock, either in Nepaul or in its course 

 to Calcutta, where it appears to have been experienced at about 6h. 

 28m., Katmandu time. The motion of the earth was undulatory, as 

 of a large raft floating on the ocean, and the direction of the swell 

 was from North-east towards South-west. 



At iOh. 45m., by a good going clock, a second shock occurred, of 

 the same intensity, equal duration, and like character with the preced- 

 ing. This also was experienced at Calcutta. 



The great shock was felt at Katmandu at about 5 minutes to 12 

 p. m., Calcutta time. It commenced very gradually by a gentle motion 

 of the earth, accompanied by a slight rumbling noise: soon however 

 it increased to a fearful degree, the earth heaved as a ship at sea, the 

 trees waved from their roots, and houses moved to and fro from the 

 perpendicular. Horses and other cattle terrified, broke loose from 

 their stalls, and it was difficult to walk without staggering as a lands- 

 man does on ship-board. Dr. Campbell, as an eye-witness, thus des- 

 cribes the scene : " The earth heaved most fearfully, and when the 

 shock was at its worst, we heard the clashing of falling tiles and bricks 

 in every direction : and to add to the impressiveness of the scene, a 

 general shout rose from the people in all directions. The murmur of 

 human prayers was carried audibly from the city to our grounds, (a 

 mile,) and nothing could be more imposing and vast than the whole 

 scene. In a dead calm, the noise of an hundred cannon burst forth : 

 full grown trees bended in all directions, and houses reeled about like 

 drunken men. In our grounds no lives were lost ; but in Katmandu 

 19 persons were buried under the ruins of their own houses, and in 

 the towns of Bhatgaon and Patan, many more." Dr. Campbell's esti- 

 mate of the duration of this great shock, varies in his letters and 

 memorandum published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, (Vol. II. 

 p. 439-564). In the former the duration is said to have been one 

 minute, in the latter, three minutes at its fullest force. During the 

 following hour, from 12 to 1 a. m., there were six distinct and strong 

 shocks, the ground in the intervals being scarcely, if at all steady, 

 and from midnight of the 26th to the morning of the 27th, twenty 

 shocks are said to have been felt, while during the whole of the 27th 

 and 28th, the earth was in a constant state of " tremblement." 



The comparative intensity of the shock at different points in its 

 course, can only be estimated, in the absence of proper instruments, by 

 its destructive effects on buildings when exposed to its influence. Dr. 

 Campbell has furnished me with materials, which in this point of view 

 are valuable, by having collected accounts in detail of injuries sustained 

 by the various towns throughout the valley of Nepaul, arranging these 

 with reference to their bearing from Katmandu as a central point. 

 This Table I here transcribe : — 



