$80 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [March, 



overrated. We should be able to do this here with almost the same success as in 

 Europe, and I will take it upon me to bring this edition through the press, if the 

 Society will avail themselves of my services. The language is antiquated only in a few 

 grammatical forms, and there are some w 7 ords out of use at present ; but the lan- 

 guage at the same time is simple ; (it reminds one of Homer) and very far from the 

 elaborative mode of grammatical structure, used at a more recent period. The sug- 

 gestion, however, of employing a pundit, who has studied the Vedas at Benares, is 

 a good one, as this will much facilitate the work. 



E. Roer. 



Both these letters were referred through the Committee of Papers 

 to the Oriental Section. 



From Colonel Sleeman, forwarding a Grammar and Vocabulary of 

 the Goond language. 



From Lieutenant Briggs, Seonee, describing an extraordinary rent ef- 

 fected in a hill in that district in the month of May last, apparently by 

 volcanic agency. 



To the Secretary of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. 



Sir,— In hopes that the following account of an earthquake, or eruption, which 

 occurred in the month of May last, near to the ancient fortress of Mundelah, on 

 the banks of the Nerbudduh, may be worthy of perusal, I have the pleasure of 

 sending you a description (although a very imperfect one) of what appeared to me 

 worthy of remark, after visiting the scene of the phenomenon. 



About the end of May last, my friend Captain Skene, the Deputy Commissioner 

 of the district, received a petition from the Thuseeldar of Mundelah, stating that 

 during the night of the 27th May, the inhabitants of the villages situated at the 

 foot of the mountain called " Dhumah Phai" had been thrown into a state of great 

 alarm, by a tremendous noise and rumbling in the hill above them ; which lasted 

 the greater part of the night, and that in the morning they found that the hill " had 

 opened" and " that trees of immense stature had been engulphed." We were by 

 this account much inclined to believe that all this had been merely the effect of a 

 landslip, but circumstances putting it in our power to visit the hill — we did so — 

 and found our previously formed idea quite erroneous. 



The Dhumah Phai, (which literally translated should mean the smoky moun- 

 tain) is about 500 feet above the level of the plain — rather steep in ascent 

 and covered with a thin stratum of earth, with numerous boulders of rocks project- 

 ing beyond the inclined plane of the hillside. Although we made every enquiry 

 with the object of discovering whether any previous volcanic eruption had been 

 the cause of the hill receiving the name of " Dhumah" we could not find that such 

 had been the case, no tradition of the sort being known among the natives; and 





