1028* Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. [No. 144. 



from Bhooj, the capital of Cutch, burst into action, and the movements 

 of the earth immediately stopped. 



The effects of the shock in the Western portion of the province were 

 remarkable and severe. An extensive subsidence of the Delta of the 

 Indus took place, which is thus described by Mr. Lyell, on the autho- 

 rity of Captain Macmurdo : " Although the ruin of towns was great, 

 the face of nature in the inland country was, not visibly altered. In the 

 hills, some large masses only of rock and soil were detached from the 

 precipices : but the Eastern and almost deserted channel of the Indus, 

 which bounds the province of Cutch, (on the Westward,) was greatly 

 changed. The estuary or inlet of the sea was before the Earthquake, 

 fordable at Luckput, being only about a foot deep when the tide was 

 at ebb, and at flood tide never more than six feet ; but it was deepened 

 at the fort of Luckput after the shock to more than eighteen feet at low 

 water. On sounding other parts of the channel it was found, that 

 where previously the depth of water at flood never exceeded one or two 

 feet, it had become from four to ten feet deep. By these and other 

 remarkable changes of level, a part of the inland navigation of that 

 country, which had been closed for centuries, became again practi- 

 cable." In describing the effects of the shock in this neighbourhood, 

 Captain Burnes remarks : (Travels, Vol. I. p. 31 1 .) " Wells and rivulets 

 without number changed from fresh to salt water : but these were 

 trifling alterations compared with those which took place in the Eas- 

 tern branch of the Indus and the adjacent country. At sun-set, the 

 shock was felt at Sindree, the station at which the Cutch government 

 levied their customs, situated on the high road from Cutch to Sinde, and 

 on the banks of what had once been the Eastern branch of the Indus. 

 The little brick fort of 150 feet square, which had been built there for 

 the protection of merchandise, was overwhelmed by an inundating 

 torrent of water from the ocean, which spread on every side, and in the 

 course of a few hours converted the tract, which before had been hard 

 and dry, into an inland lake, which extended sixteen miles on either 

 side of Sindree. The houses within the walls filled with water, and 

 eight years afterwards, I found fish in the pools of water among them. 

 The only dry spot was where the bricks had fallen upon one another. 

 One of the four towers only remained, and the Custom House Officers 

 had saved their lives by ascending it, and were eventually transported 

 to dry land by boats on the following day." 



" But it was soon discovered," Captain Burnes continues, " that this 

 was not the only alteration in this memorable convulsion of nature : as 

 the inhabitants of Sindree observed at a distance of five miles North- 

 ward, a mound of earth or sand, in a place where the soil was previously 

 low and level. It extended East and West for a considerable distance, 

 and passed immediately across the channel of the Indus, separating as 

 it were for ever, the Phurraun river from the sea. The natives called 

 this mound by the name of " Ullah Bund," or the Mound of God, in 

 allusion to its not being like the other dams of the Indus, a work of 

 man, but a dam thrown up by nature." 



