2 Poor, IN BROWN: THE BURMA EARTHQUAKES OF MAY 1912. 



of Western China, complete data of all observations will he given 

 even at the risk of repetition of uninteresting details, for unless 

 recorded here they will quickly pass into oblivion, and these 

 earthquakes will share the fate of the earlier unrecorded ones, 

 m most countries, earthquake effects, with the exception of those 

 which accompany shocks of extreme intensity, are of an evan- 

 escent character, and this is particularly the case in Indo-Chinese 

 countries in general and in Burma in particular, where the whole popu- 

 lation exists in bamboo houses of the flimsiest construction, and 

 where the only stone edifices are those of a religious character, or 

 the semi-European, semi-indigenous structures erected in centres of 

 British influence. If this report proves to be incomplete, the reasons 

 must be sought for in the circumstances just mentioned, and in the 

 fact that it has been found very difficult to collect evidence from 

 areas, often of vast extent, which arc sparsely inhabited by tribes 

 to whom the earthquake is a capricious act of the denizens of the 

 under-world, and as such, unless attended with dire consequences, 

 being inexplicable, is treated with indifference and soon forgotten. 



The first accounts of the shocks to reach India appeared in 

 various newspapers on May 25th. At that time I was stationed on 

 the Yenangyaung Oil Field. On the 27th May I received orders by 

 telegram from the Director of the Geological Survey of India to 

 start immediately and investigate the effects of the shocks. Owing to 

 the infrequent steamer service on the Trrawaddy river I was unable 

 to leave for two days, when I proceeded to Mandalay, and later 

 visited Maymyo and the immediate district comprised in the 

 epicentral tract beyond. On the completion of this examination 

 urgent duties on the oil-field demanded my return to Yenangyaung. 

 It will thus be seen that I was unable to visit enormous areas in 

 Burma and the Shan States over which the shocks were felt, and 

 for these I have had to depend on accounts furnished by local observers 

 scattered throughout the province. It is doubtful whether any good 

 purpose would have been fulfilled by a personal inspection of these; 

 other areas, as by the time I could have arrived therein owing to 

 the distances involved and the slow means of communication, the 

 temporary effects in such a land would have been almost if not 

 entirely obliterated. The usual system in India of depending on 

 filled-in question forms was not available to any extent, and I 

 have to thank the district magistrates throughout the province 

 for their cheerful assistance in answering the questions which 1 





