J 843.] Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. 1041* 



to which attention will be more particularly directed at a subsequent 

 time. 



The next shock of which I have obtained intelligence, occurred at 

 Calcutta in the month of April 1810. It is described in the following 

 Extract from the Asiatic Annual Register, Vol. XII., kindly forwarded 

 to me by Mr. Piddington.* " April 3d, on Sunday evening last, pre- 

 sently after the cessation of a smart north-wester, two successive shocks 

 of an Earthquake were distinctly felt in many parts of Calcutta and its 

 vicinity. The time of its occurrence, as noted by different persons, was 

 between 20 and 25 minutes past 7 p. m., and the duration of each suc- 

 cessive shock was variously estimated at from 6 to 30 seconds. The 

 vibrations appeared at first to pass in a line from north-east to south- 

 west, and then to return in an opposite direction. They were almost 

 universally perceptible to those who were sitting at the time in the 

 upper apartments of their houses, but were in a few instances, ob- 

 served on the ground floors. At one house in Garden Reach, where 

 a party of eleven were sitting at dinner, the shocks were very strongly 

 felt by three of the number seated at one corner of the table, and also 

 by the three others at the opposite corner, while they passed unob- 

 served by the rest of the company. Besides the peculiar sensation 

 experienced in their own persons by those who witnessed the pheno- 



* With the above account of the Calcutta Earthquake of 1810, Mr. Piddington for- 

 warded to me another of a shock experienced at Matura on the night between the 31st 

 August and 1st September, 1803. I have found it impossible to identify to my own 

 satisfaction the geographical position of the place called Matura. In the month of 

 September 1803, the British Troops took possession of Mathura, a town in the province 

 of Agra, (lat. 27° 32' N., long. 77° 37' E.) and this may possibly be the place alluded 

 to, in which case the Earthquake would be referrible to the Aravulli tract. From 

 my uncertainty as to the position of Matura, I have given the account of the Earthquake 

 in a note, instead of in the body of the memoir. From the style, the notice would 

 appear to be a translation from a native account. 



Extract from Asiatic Annual Register for 1804, Vol. VI. 

 Bengal Occurrences for October, 1803. 



Matura, September 24th, 1803. 



11 On the night between the 31st August and the 1st of September, at half an hour 

 after midnight, a severe shock of an Earthquake was felt at this place, which lasted 

 for many minutes, and was violent beyond the memory of man. Probably not a living 

 creature in the place but was roused from his slumbers by the alarm, and felt its effects. 

 Many of the pucka (Masonry) buildings were cast down, and zenanahs hitherto unas- 

 sailed by violence were deserted, and their fair inhabitants took refuge in the streets 

 and in the fields in dishabilles which had no effect to conceal them, and in affright 

 which elevated their charms, seeking protection with men whose visages it would 

 otherwise have disgraced them to behold. 



" In the morning very extensive fissures were observed in the fields, which had been 

 caused by the percussion of the night before, through which water rose with great vio- 

 lence and continues to run to the present date, though the violence has gradually 

 abated. This has been a great benefit to the neighbouring ryots, as they were thence 

 enabled to draw the water over their parched fields. 



"The principal mosque of the place erected on an eminence by the famous Ghauzi 

 Khan as a token of his triumph over the infidelity of the Hindoos, has been shattered 

 to pieces, and a considerable part of the dome was swallowed up during the opening of 

 the earth. 



*' Several slighter shocks have since occurred, but I do not hear they have occasioned 

 any farther damage." 



