1050 Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. £No. 144, 



The preceding details establish very distinctly, that toward the 

 North and East of the valley, the disturbing force was much more 

 violent in its action than toward the South and West. In the former 

 direction therefore we are to look for the focus of the shock, and it 

 seems probable, from all the facts recorded, that this was situated 

 among the hills which bound the valley of Nepaui on the North-east- 

 ward. As Dr. Campbell's views on this point coincide with my own, 

 I will take advantage of his remarks upon it : " It would appear," he 

 says, " that the most extreme violence of the shock, so far as its occur- 

 rence is as yet known, was expended within a tract of country extend- 

 ing from this side of the great Himalayan range on the North, to the 

 course of the Ganges on the South, and from the Arun river (in the 

 Nepaui hills) on the East to the Western branches of the Trisal Ganga 

 on the West, comprising a space of about 200 miles from North to 

 South, and 150 from East to West. In this space, the valley of 

 Nepaui, though not geographically the central point, is most assuredly the 

 portion that has suffered the greatest violence of the calamity," and may 

 therefore be fairly considered as the spot whence the shock emanated. 



The intensity of the shock to the North-east of Nepaui, and the 

 direction of its motion, had led Mr. Prinsep, in his notice of the Earth- 

 quake, to anticipate intelligence of some fearful catastrophe in the 

 vicinity of Lassa, in Thibet. By a most fortunate coincidence, Dr. 

 Campbell was enabled to collect some information which elucidated 

 this point in an interesting manner. In the notice of the Earthquake 

 by the Secretary to the Asiatic Society, in the Journal for August 

 (1833,) Dr. Campbell remarks : " he expressed a belief that the greatest 

 intensity of the shock would be found to have occurred beyond the 

 Himalayas, in the direction of Lassa :" and judging by the direction 

 from which the shock was felt to have proceeded, and its intensity in 

 the valley of Nepaui, such was the probability, though other has turned 

 out to be the fact, and that upon good authority. 



The recent return from Pekin of an Embassy from Nepaui, to the 

 Court of the Celestial Emperor, has furnished authentic information on 

 this subject, which might otherwise have been long wanting : and the 

 whole tenor of it shews, that the great Himalayan range itself, and the 

 country on this (the South) side of it, was alone the theatre of the 

 Earthquake's presence, and that it was not even in the slightest degree 

 felt beyond a very short distance on the Thibetan side of these huge 

 mountains. The embassy was at Lassa on the 26th August, when and 

 where the shock was not experienced. At Digarchi, in the following 

 month, it first received accounts of its occurrence from Nepaui : to the 

 inhabitants of that place the circumstance was however only from 

 reports brought from this side of the mountains : along the road from 

 Digarchi the answer to all enquiries was the same, " no Earthquake on 

 the 26th August," and not until its arrival at Tingri, was it found that 

 the shock had been felt. Tingri is a small Chinese post, immediately 

 beyond the great Himalaya, and the first stage on the table-land (as it 

 is called) of Thibet, going hence to Lassa (by the Kuti or Eastern 



