112 COGGDJ BROWN: THE BURMA EARTHQUAKES OF MAY L912. 



Sounds were hoard but no details wore supplied in the case of 5 — 

 Pinlebu, Katha Distriot.. 

 - The evidence of persons who heard the sound during the shock 

 does not contravene that of the greater number who heard it before. 

 It is well known that such sounds possess an extraordinary depth, 

 and that they are too low to be heard by many persons. Part 

 of the vibrations which produced the sounds in question may 

 have been below the range of audibility of some people, while 

 well within the compass of others. Again, low preceding sounds 

 may have escaped the attention of persons who were not alert 

 enough to perceive them until they were disturbed by the shock 



itself. 



There is a uniform agreement amongst observers as to the 

 character of the sound, and it is variously des- 

 Agreomenl u to the ibcd bein likc 1()W t } mnc i er , the ruinh- 



oharaoter of the sound. . . •• •.* 1 



ling of a string of carts loaded with loose 



iron sheets, a running railway train, a cavalry charge riding past 

 a saluting base, low rumbling noise, low roaring noise, thun- 

 derous murmur, lower air vibration, heavy carriages driven quickly 

 on a metalled road. etc. 



Most of the places where preparatory sounds were heard are 



situated within isoseists VI IT and IX ; as 



Locations of propam- except i onB however, there are four places 



tory sounds. .[.... . TTT , T T . , , , 



which lie m isoseists IV V. It is concluded 



that the sound was heard in most cases an appreciable time 



before the shock commenced. 



In the town of Shwegu, Bhamo District, the last shock was 

 succeeded by a rumbling noise which lasted 

 for about 20 seconds, and which approached and 

 died away as if a train were entering or leaving a railway 

 station. After the shock was over in Safin, Minbu District, a 

 great noise something like the firing of a cannon was hoard, 

 while from Sagu in the same district comes the confirmatory 

 and independent evidence that a similar noise was repeated 

 three times from the north-east after the earthquake. 



The sounds heard in Salin and Sagu belong to the type of 

 explosive sounds, coming after the passage of the shock which 

 have been recorded in the cases of three former Indian earth- 

 quakes,— those of 1869, 1881, and 1897.0 



1 Oldham : L»c. est., pp. 191-195. 



