'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎152] (285/458)

152 VOLCANOES OF INDIA.
N
the worship of Assapoora : it is found in small pieces imbedded in the
common soil, from which it is separated without difficulty.
On the occurrence of the great earthquake shock of June, 1819, vast
clouds of dust were seen to ascend from almost every hid or range of
hills in Goozerat and Catch ; smoke was in many cases visible,* and some
flame was perceived. At a place twenty-six miles west from Bhooj, fire
was seen in considerable volume to burst forth ; a blazing ball was pro
jected into the air, and fell to the ground, where it was broken into
four or five pieces, on which it became extinguished and invisible. No
fragments could be discovered, but the vegetation was found scorched
where it fell. On being examined next day, the bill was found rent
and shattered, as if something within had sunk. Fire, to a certain
extent, was said to have issued from a bituminous hill from which alum
is made, near Murr: the height of the hill was considered to have
been reduced, and it was mit and shattered into ravines. Near the
town of Sinderee, situated where a branch of the Indus joins the
Runn, and which was permanetly submerged on the occasion, a number
of small cones, six or eight feet in height, burst up from the ground,
and continued for many days to emit bubbles of air and mud from
their summits.| The first and greatest shock occurred about seven p.m,
on the 16th June : lesser shocks continued till the 20th, when the
volcano called Denodur, about twenty miles N. W. of Bhooj, burst into
action, and the movements of the earth immediately stopped.^:
Yestiges of recent outbursts, though of unknown date, appear at the
village of Wag6-ke-Pudda. A high table land of volcanic matter,
* Dr. Thomson, in his account of the Geology of Bombay, published in the Madras Lite
rary Transactions, <or 18:W, after describing the hurricane and earthquake which occurredall
along the coast on the 15th and 16 th May, (the 26th and 27th new style, exactly 200 years tea
day before the occurrence of similar events in 1*48,) says “ Besides the appearance of a vio
lent commotion in the atmosphere, and a perceptible concussion in the earth, volcanic acdon
seems to Iiave occurred, if we may be allowed to deduce such an inference, from the highly
embellished representations of the historian, of giants seen in the air throwing great globes
of tire at each other ; confusion of human voices in the atmosphere, the trampling of horses,
and the sound of warlike instruments.” It is added that much of this nature occu 1 ream
Salsette and other places. (Souza’s Portuguese India, tome iii.) “ The metaphorical figures ,
concludes Dr. Thomson, “ expressed in the latter part of the description, are strikingly simi
lar to those employed by Dion Oassuis in his account of the eruption which destroyed Hercu
laneum and Pompei, where we are told, giants were seen, and the sounds of trumpets heau
in the vicinity.” There is so little appearance of any recent volcanic eruption near horn hay
that I should be disposed to ascribe tiie appearance, probably in both cases, to tho meteoro
logical phenomena always coincident with earthquake and volcanic action. <
f McMurdo’s account of the Earthquakes of Western India, idl9. Bombay Lit. Iran,
vol. iii. p 105. ,
$ Capt. Baird Smith on Indian Earthquakes. Bl. As. Trans, vol. xii. June, 1843. The autho
rity on which this statement is made is not stated.
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