58 WARREN UPHAM, M.A., D.SC, F.G.S.A., ON THE SAN FRANCISCO 



motion may be seen, as for example, when, one night in the hot 

 season, I was reading in bed in a large room in India, of which the 

 floor was a smooth surface of white marble cement. A smart 

 earthquake shock occurred, and my bed was actually raised, but the 

 solid floor, nearly six feet thick, heaved up like the sea when a 

 wave passes, over it, without being broken. 



Dr. Upham observes that the intensity varied greatly over the 

 large disturbed area. Even in small districts such variation is 

 noticed. 



In Mymensingh, in Eastern Bengal, I saw the ruins of the 

 English church, which was represented by a pile of stones. Houses 

 close by were also destroyed, yet within a few yards of them stood 

 others which were intact. 



The curious effects of earthquakes were peculiarly illustrated in 

 Bengal, where I would mention the case of a temple spire near the 

 Dacca Eacecourse. The upper part of the heavy solid shaft had 

 been separated by a horizontal fracture from the lower portion, 

 and had been turned round, without leaving the perpendicular, so 

 as to rest at an angle upon its l)ase. Many other peculiar effects 

 are often noticed, such as distortions of rails, extraordinary 

 alterations in positions of the parts of walls, and so on. 



As to the moral and mental effects glanced at by Dr. Upham, 

 the Nawab of Murshidabad, being an invalid, was carried out of his 

 palace by his servants when the great Bengal earthquake took 

 place, and although he himself escaped, the severe injury and death 

 to one of his men so affected him that at the time of my visit he 

 would never remain long under a masonry roof, but received his 

 friends in a small thatched building. Similar instances are very 

 common. 



As regards the great destruction attending sea waves which are 

 raised by submarine shocks, we might instance the enormous loss 

 of life some years ago, amounting to perhaps a quarter of a million 

 persons, in the Bakarganj disaster in the Sundarbans in the 

 Ganges Delta. Even an ordinary rise of a foot or two at flood 

 times in the monsoon season is dangerous. Once when I was going 

 in a steamer towards Barisal the capital of that district, I saw 

 cattle on a village site standing with their heads just out of the 

 water, and villagers on the house roofs, all waiting patiently for the 

 flood to subside. It is easy under such conditions to realise 



