The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-11 00:00:00

THE EARTHQUAKE NT MOUNT

ARARAT.

ST. PETERSBURGII, DEC. 22, 1840.
Our Home Department has published the following
report on the extraordininary earthquake at Mount
Ararat, the first official and circumstantial account
which has hitherto appeared on the subject, all previous
descriptions having been very defective and confused,
and frequently contradictory. The report proceeds
thus
" About sunset, on the 2d of July, a violent earth-
quake occurred in the Armenian province, which lasted
nearly one minute. The village of Achturi, situated
on the declivity of the Ararat, in the Surmanlinsk dis-
trict, with the whole of its inhabitants, the more ele-
vated cloister of St. Jacob, and the house of the former
Sirdars (governors), were completely overwhelmed by
the masses of earth, stone, and ice, which rushed
down from the mountain. Inundations of melted snow
mixed with mud, flowed over the neighbouring fields, to-
tally covering them, and destroyed all the grain and
fruits within a circuit of more than ten wersts. In the
Schrursk district also, at seven o'clock in the evening of
the same day, no less than 3,137 houses, with all their
subsidiary buildings, were levelled to the ground by the
earthquake, whereby 13 men, 20 women, and 253 head
of cattle perished. The loss of property to the inhabi-
tants of this district is estimated at 43 929 silver ru-
bles. At the same moment the shock was felt in the
fortress of Shusha and other parts of the Ka-
rabacha province, where it also lasted exactly a
minute. The fortress sustained no damage ; but
in the province, one church and 169 inhabitated
houses were destroyed. The eastern wall of the ancient
Armenian convent of Tatuvsk gave way, along with
the roof, from which the carved stone; rolled down, and
the towers were demolished. The rocks in the neigh-
bourhood of the villages of Shingen sank down, by which
an Armenian, two women, and a great number of cattle
were killed ; immedaitely after, the whole of the road
to the village was covered and closed up. As yet the
inhabitants can only communicate with each other by
means of ropes.
In the Talusin Khanat the town of Concoran and
its neighbourhood experienced three heavy shocks, one
after the other, which lasted longer than a minute, but
did no damage. In Alexandropel, in Tiflis, the earth-
quake was likewise felt, but there, too, it was attended
by no injurious consequences. Throughout the whole
district of Surmanlicsk, but chiefly in the villages near
Mount Ararat, slight shocks of two or three minutes'
duration were daily observed from the 3d to the Bth
of July.

On the Gth a second downfall of Mount Ararat took
place, in consequence of which vast rocks, stupendous
blocks of ice, and immense floods of water rushed down
with such rapidity and force, that in a few minutes
everything that stood in their way was destroyed.
Great streams of the various substances thrown up ex-
tended over a surface of more than twenty wersts. e
inhabitants of the numerous villages in the Surmanlinsk
district, situated at the foot of the Ararat, are left
destitute by the devastation of their houses. Though
the torrents rushing from the mountains did not reach
all the villages, yet the corn fields were dreadfully in-
jured by the snow-water mixed with mud.
The General Commanding-in-Chief in Georgia has
sent Major Voskobanikoff to Mount Ararat to make a
correct survey, and collect on the spot all the details of
the earthquake.