OCCASIOiNAL NOTES. 



EARTHQUAKE IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 



The rarity of earthquakes in the Malay Peninsula is some- 

 what remarkable, as though the volcanic belt of the Archipelago 

 is absolutely outside this region, it approaches so near that 

 one would imagine that disturbances would constantly make 

 themselves felt here. 



From time to time tremors more or less faint have been 

 experienced in Singapore, but no record seems to have been 

 kept of these. It is stated by residents that a shock equalling in 

 intensity the one which shook Singapore and a large portion of 

 the Peninsula on the night of May 17th, 1892, was felt in 

 1861, but no details of this earlier occurrence were preserved. 

 The recent shock occurred at 8. 10 p.m., and at Tanglin it 

 commenced comparatively lightly and increased rapidly in 

 violence till the whole house was violently shaken, so that 

 glasses and furniture rattled and doors kept banging to and 

 fro, and then it gradually died away. 



The duration of the tremors was very variously reported by 

 observers as from six seconds to three minutes, but no one 

 seems to have taken an accurate record. At Tanglin it seemed, 

 as nearly as I could judge (for I did not notice its commence- 

 ment), to be nearly four minutes before the vibration of the 

 house had entirely died away, but the violent period I estimated 

 at about a minute's duration. One observer, Mr. T. A. Wan- 

 DALE, residing at Pasir Panjang, noticed two distinct oscilla- 

 tions, the first lasting apparently thirty seconds, the second 

 (which was more violent) with very distinct undulations lasting 

 for about twenty-five seconds, there being an almost complete 

 cessation of movement for ten seconds between the two waves. 

 In Deli (Sumatra) "the shocks were more severe and had a 

 slow, rolling and tremulous motion culminating in a heavy 



