1843.] Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. 10531 



birds, and fallen houses and trees ; even the largest banian trees have 

 not escaped: indeed there is scarcely a tree left in the district. It 

 is melancholy to observe the devastation in the villages, and the in- 

 habitants labouring to remove their families and cattle from the 

 ruins." 



In his note accompanying the above extract, Mr. Piddington informs 

 me, that Dr. Malcomson, in his Paper in the Geological Transactions 

 on the Basaltic districts of South India, (which I have unfortunately 

 for myself never seen,) mentions, that up to the present time, the tract 

 of country in which Ongole is situated is subject to slight shocks of 

 Earthquake, and internal noises are frequently heard.* 



Captain Newbold makes a similar remark relative to the district 

 around Nellore, in which the copper mines are situated, in one of his 

 Papers on the Mineral Resources of Southern India, published in the 

 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 



The only other notice of Earthquakes referrible to this tract, is 

 contained in Captain Henderson's Chronological Tables, from which it 

 appears, that on the 15th of June 1837, a severe shock was experienced 

 at Ganjam. No details however are given. 



The preceding brief notices constitute the whole of the information 

 relevant to the subject of Earthquakes I have as yet been able to col- 

 lect from Southern India, and with them, the present summary closes. 



I may now state in general terms, the results of the summary as 

 illustrative of the distribution of disturbing forces throughout India 

 and its frontier countries. 



The great volcanic region which stretches from the Azores to Cen- 

 tral Asia, is not extended by Mr. Lyell, beyond the country bordering 

 the Oxus. From the details previously given, it however appears, that 

 with this region are connected the Earthquake tracts of the Himalayas. 

 We have seen that from the meridian of Herat to that of Assam 

 earthquake shocks, sometimes of great severity, have been experienced 

 along the central axis, and the lateral valleys of the Himalayan chain, 

 and there is every probability therefore, that one great tract of volcanic 

 action extends from the Azores to the eastern limit of these moun- 

 tains. We still require farther information to enable us to define 

 strictly the termination of the tract on the eastward. Since we know 



The extract alluded to is as follows :— H. P. 



* On emerging from the gorge in the Nella Malla range, the Pennar enters the 

 plains of the Carnatic, and near its mouth flows through low hills of laterite. This 

 deposit rests on the ordinary granite of the Carnatic, with its associated sienites, 

 hornblende, schist, quartz rock, and mica slate. It is in a rock composed of a mixture 

 of the last two minerals that the copper-mines of the Nellore district are situated. In 

 the same neighbourhood, the sandstone and argillaceous limestone are little elevated 

 above the sea, and are continuous with the same rocks on each side of the Kistnah. 

 They are broken through by insulated basaltic hills, in the neighbourhood of which 

 subterranean sounds and frequent local Earthquakes are reported to occur; an asser- 

 tion I am the more inclined to believe, having myself experienced two slight shocks 

 during a casual visit to the district.— Geol. Trans. Vol. V. N. S. 



