KANGRA-KULU EPICENTRAL AREA. 27 



the accounts of those saved show a shade less time for escape between 

 the beginning of the earthquake and the fall of houses. 



We have the following accounts of the shock and its attendant 



Accounts of the phenomena derived from local sources. A native 



shock. correspondent in the Pioneer of 11th April wrote : — 



The vast majority of residents were abed at the time and got crushed in 

 the ruins. The houses lurched forward with violence and came down as if they 

 were made of cards, those left standing collapsing with the back movement. 



Rescue and exhumation went on during the day under Rajindar Pal, the 

 only Magistrate left alive. 



At riight the scene was weird in the extreme. The wretched and grief - 

 stricken survivors huddled themselves together in the open near the dak bunga- 

 low, made piles of timber extracted from the debris and set fire to them to keep 

 away the cold, while at some distance from them the dead lay burning on funeral 

 pyres. Every second or third hour there was a shock, although not very severe 

 and a roar like the boom of cannon. 



An eyewitness states in the Englishman of 15th April — 



The morning was calm and beautiful, and then in a moment with two fearful 

 lurches every house collapsed amid the thunder of falling rocks, roar of the 

 falling ratters and waUs and the thousand shrieks for mercy, confusion and terror 

 and death. 



Mrs. Loxton's bearer related : — Our houses fell down. With difficulty we 

 managed to get to the sahib's house only to find it fallen. The sahib in rushing 

 out had been thrown back into a corner and was killed, and we could hear the 

 memashib calling. Being guided by her voice, and after digging for what seemed 

 like hours with our hands, for we had nothing else to dig with, we found her 

 kneeling by her bed with stones and rubbish on her baek, her head was cut 

 and bleeding and her face and bcdy much bruised. Her leg was broken. We 

 wrapped her up in blankets and took her up to friends. 



In the Pioneer of 19th April, the Dharmsala correspondent, wrote 

 referring to this part of the station : — 



It seems to be generally admitted by the survivors that a slight preliminary 

 tremor was felt, followed by a sharp shock from north to south, with a still severer 

 one in the opposite direction. There was a rumbling sound* which added to the 

 terror inspired by the violent rocking of the ground. Mr. Longe, Assistant 

 Engineer, was writing at a table in his bedroom placed against a door leading 

 into a larger room when he first felt the earthquake. * * * * * 

 He with his wife and two children escaped through the window amidst falling 

 masonry and beams, and in clouds of dust. 



Mr. Williams, engineer to the local board, with his wife and two daughters 

 had an extraordinary escape. He made several vain efforts to open the door 



