95 MIDDLEMISS : KANGRA EARTHQUAKE. 



laceous, and contains shaly bands. In many places it is covered by a 

 considerable thickness of calcareous tufa. 



Practically all the houses are constructed of roughly -dressed blocks 

 of the limestone set in a mortar composed of one part of burnt lime 

 to two or three parts of limestone, gravel, locally known as " budgery." 

 Carefully prepared this is an excellent binding material, but in many 

 cases no care is taken to clean the "budgery" from intermixed dirt, 

 and in such cases the product has little coherence. A peculiar charac- 

 teristic of this cement is that should snow lie on it for a few hours it 

 subsequently crumbles to pieces, probably owing to the freezing of 

 water within its pores. During the winter it is customary to cover 

 all exposed cement with straw as a precaution against destruction. 

 There are four large two-story rectangular buildings with round 

 towers at the corners. The effect of the earth- 

 quake has been to wreck the buildings almost 

 completely. The towers were overthrown and many portions of 

 the walls collapsed. The reasons for this are four-fold : — 1st, the 

 foundations are probably not secure, the rock is very soft and 

 much shattered, whilst the steep slope at the top of which the 

 buildings are erected is largely supported by retaining walls. 2nd, the 

 building material is very poor, much of it being of a calcareous tufa- 

 ceous nature. 3rd, the construction is bad, the interior of the walls being 

 of rubbly material, whilst there is little or no appearance of bonding. 

 4th, the corner towers are a source of weakness, for their walls were not 

 properly tied to the main structure. The principal damage is in walls 

 running approximately E. — W., whilst bay windows facing east or west 

 have been separated from the walls by cracks running N. — S. 



In addition to Mr. Simpson's account quoted above, Mr. K. A. K. 

 Hallowes also made a minute examination of the Savoy Hotel in 

 which he confirmed the above conclusions. His sketch of one of the 

 hotel buildings is reproduced (pi. 21), but, considering the style of the 

 building, no object will be gained by recording the long lists made 

 of positions and directions of cracks in the walls. For the assurance 

 of visitors it may be added that the upper stories have since 



