258 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 



canie on at Silchar at a quarter to 5 p.m., with a gently undulating 

 movement, which, however, rapidly increased until neither men nor 

 animals could keep their legs, but were thrown down ; the water in 

 tanks and rivers was violently agitated, and the Barak river rose in 

 huge waves and wrecked numbers of boats. The landslips caused 

 were numerous and extensive, and many homesteads were carried 

 down into the stream. At Manipur the Political Agent found the 

 motion of the ground most violent ; it seemed to rise and fall in 

 waves of about three feet in height, and the Raja's palace as well as 

 other houses were ruined, and there was some loss of life. At 

 another place (Kussilong), about 90 miles from Chittagong, a corre- 

 spondent reported that " It burst with tremendous force. The 

 " undulations were very severe and lasted nearly two minutes. 

 " It seemed as if some mighty wave were sweeping on under the 

 " earth, and as it passed the solid earth rose and fell with a motion 

 " distinctly visible along the banks of the river and in the hills 

 " beyond. The ground was seen to roll wave-like, the hills to reel, 

 " and the trees to wave to and fro. The spectacle was wonderful 

 *' and fearful." The extreme limits of the area over which the same 

 shock or group of shocks was experienced must have exceeded 650 

 miles from north-west to south-east, and 400 miles in the conjugate 

 direction of north-east to south-west. Allowing for those districts 

 from which no reports happened to be received, the' area affected 

 must have been fully a quarter of a million of square miles, a 

 tolerable index to the vastness of the forces developed. 



Mr. Oldham is of opinion that the shock originated in a fissure 

 above 20 miles long, running underneath an area about three or four 

 miles broad and from 20 to 30 miles long, situated in north latitude 

 26° and east longitude 92° 40', on the northern borders of the 

 Jamtia hills. The mean depth of the focus was probably about 

 30 miles, and the velocity of the wave particle 20 or 30 feet per 

 second. The rate of transit could not be satisfactorily determined.* 



The second part of Vol. XIX. of the " Memoirs " issued during the 

 same year (1882) contained a list of the thermal springs of India, 

 compiled by the late Dr. T. Oldham, and brought out by his son. 

 The geographical position, latitude and longitude, elevation of the 

 locality above sea-level, and the temperature of the water of the 

 spring are all given. The list is far completer than the last one 



* A catalogue of Indian earthquakes, from 833 A.D. up to 1869, was prepared by 

 Dr. Oldham and published in the " Memoirs," Vol. XIX. 



