1843.] Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. 1035* 



tended on three sides from the outer crust to the edge of the cavity, 

 which was about 50 feet above the level of the pools: their sides are 

 scarped and uneven. On descending the northern face, I remarked 

 a small stream of clear water flowing from one of the fissures into the 

 plain, which had evidently only been running a few hours: the mud 

 water of all the pools is salt. A fourth pool situated close to the great 

 range of Haras, and distant from the rest upward of six miles, was 

 pointed out as having a similar cavity to this one. Its colour is the 

 same, and although the surface is more rounded, its summit appears 

 broken. I regretted not having an opportunity of visiting it. The 

 name given to these singular productions of nature is the " Koops, or 

 Basin of Raj Ram Chunder." They are said to be altogether eighteen 

 in number, seven in this neighbourhood, and eleven between Kedje 

 and Gimmadel in Muckran. Four were pointed out to me, and I was 

 told the other three were hid among the mountains. Some persons 

 with my party had seen one of those in Muckran, and had heard from 

 the Reerooes who shewed them the road, that many others were 

 spread over the country: he described it as throwing up jets similar 

 to the large hill here. By the Hindoos, they are looked upon as the 

 habitation of a deity ; but the Mahommedans state, that they are affected 

 by the tide, (the sea is not more than a mile distant from the large 

 one,) but this I had reason to doubt, as of the many persons I ques- 

 tioned who had visited them at all times, not one remembered to have 

 seen the pools quiescent, although several had been on the large hill 

 when the mud was trickling over the side of the basin. To endea- 

 vour to ascertain this fact, I placed several dry clods of earth in the 

 bed of the channel on a Saturday, as I expected to return by the same 

 route on the following week. A range of low hills of irregular form 

 lie to the westward of, and almost close to, the Chunder Koops. I had 

 not time to examine them, but from their appearance, I judged they 

 contained sulphur, and on questioning some of those with me who 

 crossed them, they said the taste of the earth was like that near the 

 hot springs of Sehwan where it is known to abound. A Hoomrea who 

 was present, mentioned, that about six coss off, there was another hill 

 called by the name of the " Sulphur Mountain." 



Describing the valley of the Aghor or Hingool river, Captain Hart 

 remarks : " The faces of the rocks towards the stream are broken and 

 craggy. That on the left bank is higher, and more scarped than its 

 opposite neighbour. Beyond them in the distance is seen a range of 

 light coloured sand-hills, to all appearance nothing but a mass of 

 conical-shaped peaks, and towering far above them, are the blue moun- 

 tains of Hinglaj, precipitous and wild." " On ascending the left bank 

 of the river, after passing between the peaks of the mountains, which 

 seem as if they had been severed by some convulsion of nature, a full 

 view is obtained of the sand-hills. They appear to consist of one irre- 

 gular range, cut in two by the river, extending southward to near the 

 sea, and northwards far into the mountains. They are from three to 

 four hundred feet in height, covered from base to summit with num- 



