1040* Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. [No. 144. 



consisted as usual of earth mixed with a great many fragments of stone. 

 In the day it was not luminous : but that a thin smoke issued con- 

 tinually from a space 8 or 10 cubits in diameter. He heard that at 

 night it was luminous, but he did not see it in that .state. On throw- 

 ing wood on the hot place in a few minutes it took fire. These appear- 

 ances continued for about three years and then stopped." Dr. Buchanan 

 farther mentions that the whole tract of the Rajmahal Hills abounds 

 with hot springs. ("Gleanings in Science, Vol. Ill, p. 6.) 



It is anticipating materials not yet properly arranged, but I may 

 mention that other Earthquakes have occurred during the year 1843 

 referrible to the Vindhyan tract. These will be duly noticed in the 

 Register for the present year, and it is only necessary to mention here, 

 that one of them shews the continued action of the disturbing forces 

 throughout those igneous districts of Central India, where once its in- 

 tensity was displayed on so extensive a scale. 



7. Earthquakes of the Tracts of the Delta of the Ganges. 



The forces which have given origin to those Earthquakes which have 

 from an early period been known to affect Calcutta and its vicinity, are 

 probably to a certain extent connected with those of the tract next, to 

 be described, namely, that of the Arracan coast ; but it is proved by 

 several examples that the Earthquakes of the Delta may occur with 

 entire independence of those on the coast, and I have therefore felt 

 warranted in making the former a distinct focal locality. 



The earliest notice of an Earthquake referrible to the Delta of the 

 Ganges, that I have been able to find, is contained in the following ex- 

 tract from "The Gentleman's Magazine," printed in 1738-39. I am 

 indebted to Major H. B. Henderson's Chronological Tables for the no- 

 tice, which runs thus : " In the night between the 1 1th and 12th October 

 1737, there happened a furious hurricane at the mouth of the Ganges, 

 which reached 60 leagues up the river. There was at the same time 

 a violent Earthquake which threw down a great many houses along the 

 river side : in Galgotta (i. e. Calcutta,) alone, a port belonging to the 

 English, two hundred houses were thrown down, and the high and mag- 

 nificent steeple of the English Church, sunk into the ground without 

 breaking. It is computed that 20,000 ships, barks, sloops, boats, 

 canoes, &c. have been cast away. Of nine English ships then in the 

 Ganges, eight were lost, and most of the crews drowned. Barks of 

 60 tons were blown two leagues up into land over the tops of high 

 trees : of four Dutch ships in the river, three were lost with their men 

 and cargoes ; 300,000 souls are said to have perished. The water rose 

 forty feet higher than usual in the Ganges." — N. B. The steeple of the 

 Church was described to have been lofty and magnificent, and as con- 

 stituting before this period the chief ornament of the settlement." 



No Earthquake of equal violence with this has ever since occurred, 

 and it is the only one in which fissures in the earth to any extent have 

 been observed. It is farther remarkable as having been accompanied 

 by a terrific hurricane, a coincidence however by no means rare, and 



