328 MIDDLEMISS : KANGRA EARTHQUAKE. 



rumbling kind when heard, but it is very frequently not heard at all. 

 As affexception to the above, from one hilly area, namely, Abbottabad in 

 Hazara, the motion is described as much rougher, being like a springless 

 cart with loose axles : a succession of bumps and jars, and a hanging 

 lamp is said to have shown evidence of much vertical motion. This 

 is somewhat difficult to understand so far away from the seismic 

 centre. 



The vast region embraced by the outermost isoseist II — III is also 

 • ttt somewhat difficult to summarise. In the earthquake 



J.SOS618t 11— —III, 



want of details in forms one may read that the shock was not felt or 

 that it wa3 almost imperceptible, side by side with 

 descriptions of it as a big shock. Of far more importance, however, in 

 gauging the intensity of an earthquake from written statements, is the 

 amount of detail in them. Now one characteristic of most of the forms 

 from this area is the want of details, or when such do occur they have 

 reference to movements of water in tanks or the gentle swaying of 

 suspended objects, occasionally also of beds, doors, creaking of rafters 

 and «uch like. The following are of some interest : — As far away 

 as False Point in Bengal the look-out man above in the lighthouse 

 felt the shock and the lightning conductor swayed. In Midnapur (also 

 in Bengal) the nature of the shock was at once understood from the 

 movements of tank water, and the people blew conches. The shock is 

 also described from Chapra as frightening birds in aviaries. The bubble 

 movements in level tubes reported from Tando Masti Khan in the 

 Khairpur State, Sind (see p. 252) and also from Thedaw in the Meiktila 

 District, Burma (see p. 270) are of great interest, and may be referred 

 to here, although the latter place is altogether out of the felt area. 



We may, I think, be certain that there was no violent shock in this 



area, that there was no savage shaking ouch as has 

 Character of the , j •« j . .■ ** . . , .* 



shock been described m the Mussoone area, no rapid vibra- 



tions, or visible undulations such as are commonly 

 cported from the VI— VIE area, no disturbances of furniture and loose 

 objects, no general awakening, no panic, no stopping of clocks, except 

 one electric clock in Calcutta, nor was it even generally felt by everyone 



