98 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [March, 



data of each succeeding convulsion, can we hope to become better 

 acquainted with the forces and action of such phenomena. 



The first shock after the great earthquake was not severe, the mo- 

 tion being very quiet and swaying, no shaking whatever. The second 

 was a very peculiar vertical motion, a regular thump from below, 

 followed by another precisely similar in 20 seconds. The greatest 

 number of shocks occurred between 6 P. M. and 8 P. M., that at 6-32 

 lasting a minute. A very gentle motion and tremor occurred about 

 6 p. m. The hoolooks who had long retired to rest were evidently dis- 

 turbed by the shocks, and were heard in the forest close by. — After 

 this date, the most decided shock was on the 14th January at 

 3-30 in the morning, and another on the 17th was also severe, — two 

 distinct waves at about 12 p. m. 



Very noteworthy is the distant report of a heavy gun on the 

 19th January, heard towards the west at 1-49-19 p. m., the time 

 I took immediately by chronometer as I fully expected a shock to 

 follow. Another very loud explosion was heard from Mahadeo peak 

 at midnight of the 29th ; and again from the same peak, at 7 a. m. 

 next morning the 30th, but no shock came after, on either occasion 

 I may here mention that last cold weather, on several occasions, when 

 I was in the North Cachar Hills I heard at various times, the like 

 distant reports, resembling exactly the firing of big guns at a great 

 distance. In one or two places the country people had noticed it, and 

 they even used the expression that it proceeded from the earth. 

 These subterranean explosions must be heard over large areas, and 

 it would be interesting if they could be noted, or rather if those hear- 

 ing them, would make the matter public ; I have no doubt there are 

 many individuals who will remember having heard such sounds. 



During the whole period of disturbance here, it is my belief that 

 the ground has scarcely been in perfect rest, for any continuous length 

 of time, certainly up to the 20th, and that a seismometer would have 

 recorded many a movement imperceptible to the senses. When ob- 

 serving with a 12-inch theodolite at Mahadeo, the instrument has been 

 repeatedly thrown out of adjustment and the exact time and motion 

 unknown, and unpereeived, save by the alteration of level. On one 

 perceptible shock, the ground was trembling long after we had ceased 

 to feel it. This the bubble shewed for quite 2 minutes and when 



