184/.] including Notices of Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, §c. .VI 9 



to Marsden, possesses a volcano. Earthquakes are of frequent occur- 

 rence. Marsden notices one of unusual severity, which occurred in 

 1770.* 



Sir T. Raffles mentions that on the east coast they are said to happen 

 every 5 or 6 years.f The Malays on the east coast represented to Mr. 

 Anderson that slight shocks were occasionally feltj and the same in- 

 formation was received by Lieut. Craoke at Jambi.§ In the in- 

 teresting memoir on this state by that officer appended to Mr. Ander- 

 son's work, it is likewise mentioned that a violent earthquake was stated 

 to have been experienced about 20 years or more previous to his visit 

 in 1820, and to have been preceded by a period of great heat and 

 drought, which ruined the crops and occasioned a distressing scarcity of 

 food. It is not improbable that this earthquake was simultaneous with 

 one which happened in 1797, of which the effects on the opposite 

 coast is mentioned by Raffles. "It is stated that the vibratory 

 shocks continued for 3 minutes, and recurred at intervals during the 

 space of 3 hours till the shock completely ceased. At Padang, the 

 houses of the inhabitants were almost entirely destroyed and the public 

 works much damaged. A vessel lying at anchor was thrown by the 

 sudden rise of the tide upwards of three miles on shore. The number 

 of lives lost there amounted to above 300 : of these some were crushed 

 under the ruins of falling houses, some were literally entombed by the 



* " The most severe that I have known, was chiefly experienced in the district of 

 Manna, in the year 1770. A village was destroyed by the houses falling- down and 

 taking fire, and several lives were lost. The ground was in one place rent a quarter of a 

 mile, the width of two fathoms, and depth of four or five. A bituminous matter is de- 

 scribed to have swelled over the sides of the cavity, and the earth, for a long time after 

 the shocks, was observed to contract and dilate alternately. Many parts of the hills far 

 inland could be distinguished to have given way, and a consequence of this was, that 

 during three weeks, Manna river was so much impregnated with particles of clay, that 

 the natives could not bathe in it. At this time was formed, near to the mouth of Padang 

 Goochie, a neighbouring river, south of the former, a largo plain, seven miles long and 

 half a mile broad ; where there had been before only a narrow beach. The quantity of 

 earth brought down on this occasion was so considerable, that the hill upon which the 

 English resident's house stands, appears, from indubitable marks, less elevated by fifteen 

 feet than it was before the event." Id. p. 25. 



t Memoirs, p. 295. 



$ Anderson, ttt supra, p. 199, 



$ Id, p. 402. 



