'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎148] (281/458)

\/tg VOLCANOES OF INDIA.
thirty to sixty feet in width. Other mountains and hills were variously
disturbed ; some were partially thrown down so as partly to disturb
the courses of rivers. One eminence became degraded by little and
little till it returned to the level of the plain. In the plain the earth
opened in several places, throwing up water and mud of a sulphureous
smell. .At Barcharra 200 lives were lost on a track of ground that
sunk suddenly. It is said that at Arracan the effects of the earth
quake of 1772 were not less fatal to human life and property than
those of the Lisbon one in 1755; while at Dacca the waters rose so
suddenly as to throw all the boats on shore, on its retirement sweeping
multitudes of human beings away. Drom the notices of islands now no
longer to be found on the western shore of the Bay of Bengal, in the
accounts of Arab navigators, there can be no doubt whatever that
numbers of these have been from time to time submerged.*
About an hour after sunrise on the 2f)th July 1843, the inhabitants of
Chedooba and Flat Island heard a great noise, and saw fire rising
out of the sea ; an earthquake had been felt just before ;—this conti
nued for four days, when on the 29th a small island seemed to arise
above the surface of the waters. It continued visible for about a
month, but it was now the monsoon, and the weather was too boisterous
to permit of its being approached. In October, on the return of tlie
fine season, search was made for it, but no trace of it could be found.
A careful survey of the spot was afterwards instituted by order of
Government, but no indication of commotion, and no change iu
the aspect of the shore, or bottom of the sea was discoverable.f
On the 2nd Jan., 1845, between the hours of six and seven p.nn,
about an hour after sunset, the people of Kyouk Phyoo, on the coast of
Arracan, were astonished to see the eastern horizon to seaward become
brightly illuminated : it continued flickering, like the reflection of dis
tant flame from a ship on fire, for about half an hour, when suddenly
immense volumes of flame were seen to burst as if from the depths of
the ocean, presenting the most sublime and awful spectacle to behold
ers. It was occompanied by a low continuous rumbling sound, which
seemed to ascend from the bowels of the earth, and was re-echoed
from the hills around. The duration of the exhibition is not mention-
ll —
• Mr. Torrens, Bengal Asiatic Journal. Reports, Feb., 1845, p. xxvi.: Ibid, p. xxii.
t Ibid, Dec., 1843, voi, xji., Ibid, vol. ii., p. 1117 .
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