KANGRA-KULU EPICENTRAL AREA. 39 



The few houses constituting the bazar at Ranital, lying in a line, 

 had suffered at both ends ot the row. The post 



Ranital bazar. * 



office and another shop had collapsed. The pilgrims' 

 rest-house and other long ranges of buildings below xhe bazar had 

 their slate roofs twisted and buckled, and the same is true of others 

 roofed with thatch. Otherwise they were comparatively uninjured. 

 The travellers' bungalow was badly rent, and portions of the upper 

 walls had fallen. This damage was partly influenced by the steep 

 little hill on^ which the bungalow is perched, and partly by the fact 

 that although the building is of cut stone, mud mortar had been used 

 inside the walls, only their outer face being pointed with lime mortar. 



It will be seen that the intensity of the earthquake, as represent- 

 ed by house damage, declined with extreme rapidity between Daulat- 

 pur and Ranital. Whilst the former place resembled Kangra, the 

 latter was the equivalent of Shahpur in this respect. 



On the way to Dera Gopipur the first-half of the' journey of 14 

 ^ _ . miles still showed considerable damage to the 



Dera Gopipur. • 



numerous hamlets, walls having fallen away or huge 

 fissures appeared in them here and there. During the second-half of 

 the distance where there was not so much slate roofing, and where 

 tiles of light construction and thatch roofs began to be common there 

 was but little damage. Tiles had fallen and been replaced, and there 

 were some good cracks. Beyond this point at Paisa, and thence to 

 Dera Gopipur there was no visible damage. A close scrutiny of the 

 travellers' bungalow at the latter place showed merely a few minute 

 cracks in corners, etc., where the whitewash had parted. Although the 

 postmaster described the shock as having been of extreme severity 

 here, the undamaged and of course habitable bungalow, and the 

 ordinary every-day appearance of the pretty little town showed that it 

 must, as regards intensity of the shock, be ranked with Nurpur. 



The Mangra tower, an old militar post some miles away on. the 

 western of the two routes to Ranital, was visited by me on my 

 return journey. Tt is situated on a steep ridge and had portions of 

 the central cKitagonal tower crumbled away irregularly, whilst the 



