The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-22 00:00:00

THE EARTHQUAKE IN INDIA.

While the New World has experienced a series of violent
earth•throes during the past few months, the Asiatic Con-
tinent has remained almost entirely free from disturbance.
But now that the activity of the subterranean forces under.
lying the former region would seem to have found relief,
there appears to be a renewal of action on the part of the
Asiatic earthquake systems. The news received from
Calcutta on Tuesday hardly led us to anticipate that the
earthquake in that neighbourhood had been so important
as we now learn to have been the case. We were simply
told that a sharp shock of earthquake had been felt in
Calcutta and throughout the Assam district ; that at
Behrar many buildings were damaged, and that the bazaar
at Silchar had been destroyed. But the intelligence received
on Wednesday indicates a catastrophe of considerable
importance. The earthquake of the 10th, we are now told,
was one of a terrible character. Many natives lost their
lives, all brick buildings at Silchar and Cachar were
destroyed, and the bazaar at the former place was com-
pletely engulfed. The earthquake extended to Assam
and Darjeeling. The last fact seems to dissociate the
present event from the subterranean system which,
extends from Calcutta to Cutch, or rather from Cabool
over the Gulf of Cutch, to the neighbourhood of
the delta of the Ganges. The volcanic region to which
the recent earthquake in all probability belonged, is one
which connects Sumatra with Assam, and has long been
associated by geologists with disturbances of Chittagong
and the adjacent deltas of the Brahmapootra and the
Ganges. A remarkable evidence exists of the energy
of this volcanic system in the neighbourhood cf
Calcutta ; for opposite the middle of the delta
of the Ganges there is a nearly circular span,
fifteen miles across, where, instead of a gradual
deepening of the water, as elsewhere in this
part of the Bay of Bengal, there is a sudden
increase of depth, so that soundings of 600, or even
800 feet, fail to reach the bottom. This space is called the
"swatch of no ground." As Sir Charles Lyell remarks,
"the phenomenon is the more extraordinary, since the
depression occurs close to the line of shoals, and not only
do the waters charged with the sediment of the Ganges
pass continually over it, but during the monsoons the sea,
loaded with mud and sand, is beaten back in that direction
towards the Ganges." We cannot but conclude that
remarkable subsidences must have taken place at this spot
in modern times. Indeed, in the immediate neighbour-
hood of Calcutta there are clear tokens of a sinking down
of the land " to the amount of seventy feet or more per-
pendicular," according to Lyell. For seventy feet below
the present level of the surface a stratum of black peat
has been found, a circumstance which affords clear
evidence that there was here at some period or
another a wide tract of vegetation-covered (or
forest) land. At present, however, the very existence
of a delta of such wide extent as that of the Ganges—
now conjoined with that of the Brahmapootra—
is evidence of a long period of comparative tranquillity.
The area of the delta of the Ganges alone is more than
double that of the Nile. Its base is no less than 200 miles
in length, and its apex lies at a distance of more than 220
miles from the sea. Indeed, that part of the delta which
borders on the sea, " a labyrinth of rivers and creeks,"
known by the name of the Sunderbunds, is equal in
extent to the whole of Wales. If the recent earth-
quake were accompanied by any important upheaval
or depression, this delta would be affected to an
important extent. The question of the relative value
of Calcutta and Bombay as a capital for India might be
settled in a summary manner if the outlets of the Ganges
were seriously disturbed. Of the real magnitude of the
subterranean forces at work under this part of Asia it is
not difficult to form a due estimate. We have only to
consider the magnitude of the great Himalaya chain, the
highest mountain-range in the world, to see that upheav-
ing forces of unequalled power have been at work in old
times in this neighbourhood, and to recognise the poss!-'
bility that these forces, if ever they should resume their
activity, might in a short time change the whole face of.
Bengal, Assam, and the neighbouring provinces.—Daily
News.

SEA SICKNESS.—Dr. F. Darker, of New York,
recommends the following rules for avoiding sea sickness :-
1. Rest yourself on the eve of your departure, so that the
nervous system may not be over-excited when you go
board. 2. Lie down before anchor is weighed, and keep in
a horizontal posture for two days running. 3. Eat as much
as you can at every meal, but without raising your head.
In this way the stomach does not lose the habit of digestion;
you keep up your strength, and gradually get accustomed
to the ship's motion. By following these rules, the heaviest
gales may be encountered without sea sickness.
FREEMASONRY.—Information has been forwarded
to the English craft that his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales, before leaving Stockholm, was entered an apprentice
to Freemasonry, and, having speedily " passed" to the rank
of a " fellow craft," was raised to the full degree of a
Itt
eirse fdu rutih)
oe
nr s
st
oa
nt
ed tohf att
hthe f
annecxyv yd -eignraede
se
,Rmoyo'ra le
Master Mason, as recognised by the Order all over the
brotherworld e
practised on the Continent than in England, and was
made a Knight of the Masonic Order of Charles
the Thirteenth. The present Grand Master of
the English Order, Lord Zetland, has held his
office for a quarter of a century, and the lodges are
contributing to a fund for the presentation of a testimonial
to him in celebration of his long service, and following the
precedent set in the presentation of plate weighing 1,800
ounces to the late Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex, who
held the office for twenty-years. It is thought probable
that the Prince will become affiliated to the English
Order, and will rise to the position held by several of his
princely predecessors, it being understood that the present
Grand Master desires retirement. The position of Gmnd
Master, by the constitution of the craft, can only be bold
by a Prince of the blood Royal, a member of- k noble
house. ai by A !` lean