TIME OF EARTHQUAKE AND RATE OF PROPAGATION OF SHOCK, g l 



PART II. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE TIME OF THE EARTHQUAKE AND RATE OF PROPA- 

 GATION OF THE SHOCK. 



It has not boon an easy matter to obtain reliable time observa- 

 tions of the earthquake, in fact the difficulties met with have been 

 greater than those usually encountered in such enquiries. The 

 epicentral area itself is situated in a sparsely populated 

 portion of the Northern Shan States., and although crossed by a 

 branch of the Burma Railways, has furnished but little trust- 

 worthy evidence. Both for the adjoining, and for more distant 

 regions, I have received various time data exhibiting different 

 degrees of accuracy, and the sources from which they have, come 

 may be divided as follows : — 



1. Letters from district officials and others. 



2. Reports from station masters and from post and telegraph 



offices. 



3. Automatic records of self-registering instruments in India. 



The records from the first category are the most variable. In a 

 few cases, it is definitely stated that the watch or clock from which 

 the observation was made, had been compared with that of the 

 nearest telegraph office or railway station, but in others, the time u 

 merely guessed, or no details of any kind are given. It might be 

 supposed that in telegraph offices which receive a daily signal, or 

 in railway stations where the constant running of trains demands 

 due attention to a time-table, some considerable measure of 

 accuracy would be approached. Such a supposition is erroneous, 

 the causes being errors in the clocks themselves, and failure on the 

 part of recorders to appreciate that exact time was required of them. 



Standard Time is generally used in Burma. According to 



information supplied to me by the Commis- 



standani Tim,. s j on ers for the Port of Rangoon, it is 5 minutes 



