508 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
up, as the last day had arrived ! ” On my exit into the verandah, 
I cannot express the feeling of awe when I saw the surface of the 
ground. To describe the observation clearly, it was like the gentle 
undulations of the surface of the sea in calm weather. 
My brother-in-law, who was one of my assistant engineers, was 
50 miles away, and was spending the day with a number of civil 
and military friends at Pertabgur, when, almost within a few 
seconds, they experienced the same phenomena, and immediately 
took shelter under trees. A few hours later we experienced a 
terrific thunderstorm and a deluge of rain. 
4. During special duty in Rangoon, one night in August 1867 
(the house in which we resided being built of wood), we thought 
there were dacoits in the verandah, so I quietly got my revolver, 
but before long found that the continuous vibrations were caused 
by earthquake. The only damage which I can now remember was 
that the arches of some of the masonry buildings in the town were 
fissured. 
5. In 1869, while engineer officer in charge of works in the 
Tenasserim Province of Burma, during the hot season, we experi- 
enced several shocks of earthquake. It was in August of this year 
there was a total eclipse of the sun. Por eighteen days it had not 
ceased to rain : I recorded a fall during that period of 68 inches. 
Standing on the platform of the great pagoda, which is built on the 
summit of a hill, on ordinary occasions five rivers can be easily 
seen running their respective courses before they united with the 
Maulmain River. By the inundations these became one immense 
expanse of sea, and remained in that condition for many days. 
Perhaps it may not be out of place to say that I had hopes of 
taking some photographs of this great eclipse at Maulmain, as I 
was fully prepared. At Tavoy and at Mergni two of my assistant 
engineers were also in readiness, but the heavy and incessant rain 
prevented any work. Even Colonel Tennant, R.E., who had been 
sent by Government to the Nicobar Islands for the purpose of 
taking observations, was greatly disappointed by bad weather. 
6. During professional residence at Delhi, in 1872; at Agra, 
1875, and Cawnpore, 1879, the shocks of earthquake were also 
very severe ; and at such seasons I always found that thunder- 
storms and very heavy falls of rain invariably accompanied such 
