Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-26
a GREAT

v,olent Earthquake Visits the Vale Oh
Cashmere, in India, Causing Great Dis
tress-Serinagur, the Capital City. Al
most Entirely Demolished, and Many
Lives Lost.
LONDON. June 3.-Dispatches from Bonn
hay state that news has just reached there
| of a disastrous earthquake in Cashmere, q
conntrv in India. The shocks began on
Sunday, and nave continued at intervals
of ten minutes ever since, The shocks
were very severe at SIS 1Sgur, the
capital of Cashmere. The barracks, in
which several hundred soldiers We're quar-
tered, were completely destroyed, collapsing
so suddenly that nearly half of the men
were imprisoned in the debris. Fifty are
| known to have been killed, While fully one
hundred were more or less injured.
A portion of the city has been demol-
| ished, while very few of the remain-
| ing buildings escaped injury, many
| having large rents made in them. The peo-
| pie became panic-stricken shortly after the
disturbance began and fled from the city,
taking refuge i'll booths and tents
in the open fields. The total
number of killed and wounded is not
yet known, nor the full extent of the
damage done, owing to the interruption Of
the working of the telegraph wires. 1t is
feared tina the loss of life will be heavy, as
the latest information from there calls for
help, saying that hundreds of animals have
| been killed and that the distress among the
people issvery great.
The terrified inhabitants are now camped
in the fields that surround the own Serir-
agur is near the center of the Vale of CASH
mere, and the whole territory experienced
the terrible earthquake shocks. The dam
age caused throughout the vale is enormous
| The loss i'll cattle alone is very great The
affriglted people seem 10 be utterly help
less, and succor is being sent them as rap
Idly as the Indian auth critics can organize
relief. Many OF the houses, OH account of
the large rents in the walls, must be RACED
to the ground. The shocks have not yet
ceased, and this fact greatly retards the
work Of rescuing the people pinned down
in the debris, and it is feared that many OF
these must perish before they can be
1eached by the relief parties.
A late report from Serinagur says that
the Mohammed mosque in the little own of
Saguir, twenty miles north of Serinagur,
was demolished and two hundred persons
were killed.
[Serinagur is a city of an estimated popula'
ton OF l32,0DO inhabitants. and is built upon
both banks OF the Jhclum River, the
ancient Hydaspcs of the Greeks. II
is rather a confused mass of houses thar
a regularly laid out city, according to West
crn idea. The upper stories of the build
ings project over the first, and are sup
ported by long props. The bulk of the popu:
lation is Mohammedan in faith, nnd
they support several mosques, of which The
Jalni is the largest and most e4egalN. 1t has
been badly damaged by the earthquake
Several small Hindoo temples were alsc
cine mission, erected by the Maharajah, is
practically .unharncd. There, are seven
bridges across the Jlelum, which arc simply
OF stone and brick. Nearly all these
were SO shaken up by the shock as to be i'm
quakes. and many of the ancient relics OF
Grsciar sculpture with which the land for
mcrly abounded owe their broken and ruined
condition to this cause. Serinngur, however
had Of late years been comparatively exenp,
from seismic Disturbances.