GO 



M'IDDLEMISS : KANGRA EARTHQUAKE. 



resisting power of their timber-bonded walls. As all the houses we shall 

 meet with in the description of this paro of the Kangra-Kulu epicentral 

 area are of the hill type, differing entirely from the sun-dried brick- 

 built structures of the Kangra Valley, and the mixed structures of the 

 bazars in the valley parts of Kulu, a few words are necessary regard- 

 ing the method of timber-bonding in vogue, which, whether intentional 

 or not, seems a suitable form of hill architecture* for earthquake 

 countries. 



I take the following extract from the Punjab Gazetteer of Kulu, 

 Timber-bonded slightly abridging it :— 

 houses in Kulu. 



A Kulu hill village is frequently built on a spur or other rocky ground that 

 is useless for cultivation. The houses are generally detached and grouped with 

 a delightful disregard of method and plan. In structure they are very quaint 

 and pretty, like square or oblong turrets much greater in height than in length 

 or breadth and crowned by sloping gable roofs covered with slates or fir shingles. 

 From a foundation of the dimensions 9 liaths by 9 Jiaths, 11 by 9, 15 by 9, 15 by 11 

 8 by 11 (a hath being 1^ feet) the house shoots up three or four stories high 

 Xo mortar is used in its construction ; the walls are of dry stone masonry, the 

 stones being kept in place by timbers placed upon them at vertical intervals 

 of 2 or 3 feet. The ground floor is used for cattle and has no windows, the seconc 

 storey as a granary lit by 

 small windows, whilst the 

 third storey is the living 

 part of the house. Its 

 space area is increased by 

 a more or less closed-in 

 wooden verandah conti- 

 nuous with the upper 

 floor, and protruding out- 

 wards from the walls on 

 all or several sides. It 

 is this projecting balcony 

 which gives the houses 

 the false appearance of 

 being top-heavy and 

 unstable (fig. 20). 



Fig. 20. 



