n 
Recards of iJte Geological Survey of India. [vol. xii. 
9. The Burmese, as a rule, are very superstitious in matters of this sort, and generally 
ascribe such a phenomena to the work of a dragon (Nagah). 
From Captatn Geoege Alexander, Officiating Deputy Commissioner, Kj-onk Fhyoo, to 
the Commissioner of Arakan Division, Akyab. -No. 3, dated Camp Eamri, 11th De¬ 
cember 1878. 
I have the honor to submit a further report on the subject of the volcanic eruption near 
Moo-yin in the island of Eamri, and in continuation of ray letter No. 35-12 of 1878. 
The mound first made its apijearance on the night of the 18th March 1878; at least the 
fir.st people who saw it were some women, who wont out to cut wood before dawn on the 
morning of the 19th, and came across a mound gi-adually rising from the earth, and being 
frightened, believing that it was a “ Nagah Doung”, or hill raised by a dragon, they ran away. 
They saw no fire, nor did they perceive any earthquake. They state that the mound continued 
rising for 12 days, and that it was on fire for a day and a night. Lah Bah Chyoung, the 
writer of the circle Thoogyee, who visited the spot at about noon on the day in question, 
says ho found smoke and fire issuing from cracks in the mound when he arrived, but state.s 
that the surface of the ground was smooth and hard ; that the earth was being forced out of 
an area of about three bamboos or 36 feet in length, and gradually made its way westward 
towards the sea. It appears to be doubtful whether the mound itself vomited lire, or whether 
it was set on firii b.y a small child with a cheroot; at any rate it was on fire on the day after 
its appearance, and the llame burnt for two days, not steadily and regularly, but spurting up 
into the air by fits and si arts, for some 20 or 30 cubits ; there w'as a strong smell of earth-oil 
whilst the mound was on fire, and it is described as having been so powerful and pungent as 
to make the women near giddy ; there appears to have been no active .sudden eruption, merely 
an upheaving of the earth gradually. And the villagers state that sticks planted 6 inches or 
a foot in the ground in the evening would be found to have been carried considerably west¬ 
ward by morning, the first night 14 cubits ; but the distance kept decreasing inversely as 
the days went by% This information is gathered from the women who first saw the mound 
and from other residents close by. 
Directly inland, and at a distatice of some 300 or 400 yards from the present upheaval, is 
a conical hill which has the appearance of being one of volcanic origin. The present elders 
of the village state that in the year 1146 (Burmese era), or 94 years ago, a volcano appeared 
which threw out large quantities of stones and residue, and gradually' formed a hill which 
some 66 years ago was about 23 feet high, and which is now estimated at about 40 feet high, 
although it is difficult to say where the hill begins, and the top is considerably more than 
this height above the surrounding paddy cultivation. This mound is called by the Arakanese 
“ Nagah Bwai ” or dragon’s cii'cle, and has been in active eruption some four or five times 
during the life of one of the pro.seut eldcr.s, at a few hours at a time, and the stones thrown 
out on each occasion have caused the hill to increase in balk. Whenever the eruptions took 
j)lace at the Nagah Bwai hill, the same strong smell of earth-oil was perceivable ; the last 
eruption took place about five years ago. Some of the stones found at the spot where the 
last upheaval of the earth occurred have been collected by myself personally, and as the 
Officers of the Geological Department expressed a wish to have some of these stones, I for¬ 
ward the same, as they may oast some light on the causes that influenced this phenomenon 
of nature. 
There seems to be little reason to doubt that earth-oil in one form or another was the 
disturbing inllncnco. 
