1843.] Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. 1037* 



occur. No definitive information on this very interesting point has 

 yet, however, been obtained, but the establishment of proper marks to 

 which future reference could be made, would be an object worthy of 

 the attention of the Officers just deputed to the survey of Sinde ; for on 

 the coast of Sinde as well as on that of Cutch and Lus, if the move- 

 ment be a real one, indications of its existence would in time be 

 furnished. 



During the year 1842, an Earthquake was experienced at Baroda, 

 but no account of its course was, so far as I am aware, made public. 

 I have already expressed my regret at this, as the shock may possibly 

 have emanated from the tract under notice, but as this cannot now be 

 ascertained, it is unnecessary to allude farther to it. 



6. — Earthquakes of the Tract of the Vindhyan Mountains. 



The Vindhyan mountains extend in an almost unbroken chain from the 

 Gulf of Cambay to the valley of the Ganges, thus traversing the entire 

 peninsula of India at its base, and forming the connecting line of the 

 mountain ranges of northern and southern Hindoostan. It is proba- 

 ble indeed, that at one period the Vindhyas crossed the Gangetic valley, 

 and being connected with what are now called the Garrow Mountains, 

 abutted ultimately on the Himalayas. Throughout the whole of this ex- 

 tensive range, indications of volcanic action are developed in a most re- 

 markable manner. This action, speaking comparatively with what it has 

 been at a former epoch, may now be described as almost extinct ; but 

 there are still occasional proofs furnished of the forces once developed 

 on so large a scale being yet in existence, although with much reduced 

 intensity. The development of trap rocks in the central portion of 

 the Vindhyas is the most remarkable feature in their physical struc- 

 ture ; the details of this have so frequently been given already, that it is 

 unnecessary for me to do more than merely to allude to them here. 

 Hot springs are also most abundant, and have been described by vari- 

 ous observers, as extending from the valley of the Nerbudda to that of 

 the Ganges. That Earthquakes should occasionally be experienced 

 within a region so abundant in marks of igneous action was to be anti- 

 cipated, and it is only remarkable, that the number recorded should be 

 so few, and their intensity so feeble. 



The earliest historical notice we have of a convulsion of this class is 

 that relating to the destruction of the city of Oojein, (lat. 23° 11' N., 

 long. 75° 35' E.) by a shower of volcanic ashes, in the time of Rajah 

 Vikramaditya, 56 b. c. Sixty other towns are said to have been 

 involved in the same catastrophe, but it must be admitted that the 

 tradition on which this statement is based is apocryphal, being unsup- 

 ported by any physical evidence of volcanic action within the historical 

 period in the vicinity of the place, so far as its examination has been 

 carried. It seems, however, scarcely possible, that a volcano capable of 

 ejecting a shower of ashes on so enormous a scale could have wholly 

 escaped research, and in the present state of our information, the des- 

 truction of Oojein from igneous action must be held doubtful. Captain 



7b« 



