'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎149] (282/458)

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EARTHQUAKES IN ASSAM.
ed, thougb it was seen by many witnesses : it seems to have been very
transient. A vessel was sent out to sea immediately, under the impres
sion of its being a confLigi ation, but saw nothing. Government, on
being applied to b^y the Asiatic Society, instituted a careful survey of
the coast, but no change in the depth of the soundings Measurements of the depth of a body of water. or character
of the bottom could be discovered. There can, at the same time, remain
oo reasonable doubt that the exhibition was volcanic—-probably a sud
den emission of gas through an aperture or crevice not detected by the
sounding-line.* '
The extreme frequency of earthquakes in Assam would lead to the
inference that it was the theatre of lively volcanic action. No fewer
than twelve of these occurred betwixt May, 1834, and May, 1835.
“ About twenty years ago,” says Dr. McCosh, writing in 1837—
that is about 1817, “ the natives inhabiting a small knoll near the
hill of Golpara were so terrified by the unusual shaking of their little
hill, that they fled from it for safety, and ran to a distance : on their
return their houses and hill had disappeared, and a large pool of water,
thirty or forty feet deep, occupied its place,”f
The region of recent direct volcanic action seems, so far as we at
present know, to terminate with the extremity of the Delta of the
Ganges^:—a few hot springs are all we have to indicate the agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. of
subterranean fire for nearly 1000 miles across the Peninsula. There
are hot springs in the Damoodah Yalley, 23°1Q / N., in Gangetic In
dia, in Kunowar, in the Lower Himalayas, and near Lohunkund, on
the Sutlej. The most notable of these is that at Sargunga, near
Chofca Nagpore, in Central India, where the temperature of the water
is 184° : it smells strongly, and seems to he a Harrowgate. § Dr.
'Vosey describes a hot saline spring near Hyderabad, in the Dec-
acco Y ts of tllis most sin K ular occurence are given with great minuteness in the
rr?K P f° C f edmgs of the Hen £ al Asiatic Society for February J315, p. 21—28, not iu-
Oeied. The best account is that of Lieut. Hawkins.
f Topography of Assam, by Dr. McCosh. Calcutta, 183/.
t Col. Couseley, Bl. As. Trans., vol. xvii. p. i.
in^vnh e .( 0ll ° Wi ? g I s S; om Capt * Baird Smith’s memoir on Indian Earthquakes. I have not met
recent F ‘ lconer referred to as expected iu J84h nor, indeed, with any more
visits^ ° f the field of Ure than about to be given : but from toe frequency of our
<( ‘ Ldsiimere since 1846, I should suppose it must have been frequently since described.
further*pvP.k recerd travellers who have explored the valley of Cashmere have collected any
as I have r - iC6 f k S t0 tke ^ ormer condition of the province, I am unfortunately unable to aay,
ar e numprm^ i een consud:: their works. That indications of active volcanic action
Teller e at,d remarkable, I learn from Dr. Falconer, the latest of the Cashmerian tra-
intorms me that a singular ( field of fire’ exists iu the valley, of considerable di-