THE ISOSEISTS. 309 



Attention has just been drawn to the different effects of the 

 shock on the spurs, ridges and hollows. But the 

 comparative effects on different classes of buildings 

 are also worthy of note. That the prevailing type of bazars built 

 of sun-dried bricks and mud mortar "would be severely damaged by 

 any earthquake of considerable magnitude may be said to be almost 

 a foregone conclusion, but there are other considerations which render 

 such frail structures particularly unstable — 



First. — The usually open verandahs. 



Second. — The open fronts of the shops behind the verandahs, and 

 only partially boarded in. 



Third. — The floors of the second story resting on beams let into the 

 mud walls. 



Fourth. — The heavy slate roof. 



Fifth, — The irregular mode of building shops of all sorts and sizes 

 without plan or arrangement : a condition which made it impossible for 

 any two neighbouring shops to swing together with like periods. Hence 

 they mutually charged into and destroyed each other in their efforts to 

 make independent swings. 



It is doubtful whether many of the older private houses in Dharm- 

 sala were much superior to the bazars in their earthquake resisting 

 powers. Certainly all having two stories and the consequent inter- 

 mediate floor were equally ineffectual, because of the battering-ram like 

 action of the beams and joists directly any rocking motion began. 

 Even the strong stone buildings such as the Gurkha mess-house and old 

 British barracks suffered inevitably from this horizontal line of cleavage 

 at the upper floor. 



On the other hand equally strongly built single-storied buildings 

 such as the magazine, quarter-guard and treasury, without any lines of 

 great weakness, and with a strong domed roof binding the walls to- 

 gether instead of lying loosely on them, successfully resisted the shocks 

 by rocking as single masses. 



