eannot see or find any grounds for supposing that that portion of the Soonderbuns, lying between Saugor Island on the West, and the Horinghatta river on the East, and extending from the sea to Issureepoor on the Juboonah which falls into the Roymungul, has ever been inhabited. Fresh water tanks, dug either by the salt-makers or by pirates do appear on the banks of many of the rivers, a few temples or their remains have also been discovered, but only in the Northern portions of the Soonderbuns. In lot No. 129 that has been lately cleared and occupied by a village of Native Christians we remarked baked bricks, remains of buildings, fruit trees not indigenous to the country, and a large but shallow tank, all evidences of former occupation, but these remains are close upon the water's edge; and nowhere in the interior of this extensively cleared lot, have any other traces of man's occupation of the land appeared far removed from the river, or from where the usual salt-works would be carried on.

In the Island of Saugor, which lies upon the extreme edge of the Deltaic basin, consequently lying higher than the centre of the Delta, the remains of tanks, temples and roads are still to be seen, showing that it was once more densely populated than it is now, and native history informs us that Saugor Island has been inhabited for centuries. During the operation of clearing Saugor Island in 1822 to 1833, and later when clearing away the jungle for the Electric Telegraph in 1855-56, remains of buildings, tanks, roads and other signs of man's former presence were brought to light. Again upon the Eastern portions of the Soonderbuns, where the country has been cleared of forest, mudforts are found in good numbers, erected most probably by the then occupiers of the soil to ward off the attacks of the Mughs, Malays, Arabs, Portuguese, and other pirates who in times gone. by, that is, about A. D. 1581, depopulated this part of the country. The Mughs even advanced so far to the Westward as to depopulate the whole country lying between the river Horinghatta and the Rabnabad Channel, but we know of no trace of the land having been occupied further to the Westward of the Horinghatta.

If the central portions of the Soonderbuns were ever occupied, and at the present day they can only boast of a black semiliquid mud surface, washed by most spring-tides and by every cyclonic wave, then must we come to the conclusion that the whole country has subsided, and that all buildings and masonry, and indeed all traces of human beings ever having lived and flourished on such a spot, must have sunk at the same time into the soft soil and disappeared. Rennell says, (1788 A. D.)

"In some ancient maps and books of travels, we meet with a city

named Bengalla; but no traces of such a place exist. It is described as being near the Eastern branch of the Ganges; and I conceive that the site of it has been carried away by the river: as in my remembrance a vast tract of land has disappeared thereabouts. Bengalla appears to have been in existence during the early part of the last century."

If we consider the unsubstantial nature of the foundation of the Soonderbuns, which, at the distance of only one hundred and twenty feet from the surface, consists of a bed of semi-fluid sand forty feet in thickness, and then remember the terrible convulsions that have at different periods shaken the Delta to its deepest foundations, we must not be surprised to find that the liquid mass, unable to support the superincumbent weight, has repeatedly bulged out seaward, reducing the level of the Delta, submerging whole forests, together with their fauna and flora. That forests now lie under the Soonderbuns we have seen with our own eyes; in excavating a tank at the new town of Canning at the head of the Mutlah, large Soondree trees were found standing as they grew, no portion of their stems appearing above ground. Their numbers may be imagined when we state, that in a small tank only thirty yards across, about forty trees were exhumed, ten feet below the surface of the country, their timber undecayed, showing that no very great period of time has passed over their submergence. If the present level of their roots could suddenly become the level of the country, the whole Soonderbuns would be under water. At a lower level than these trees, beds of a peaty mass composed of decayed and charred wood is pierced in Calcutta, Hooghly, Dum-Dum and elsewhere, at a depth varying from eight to eighty feet. At Dum-Dum we have pierced it in digging a well at nine feet, and a little further to the East of the station at the end of the Artillery range in excavating a tank in a Baboo's garden the same stratum was pierced at twelve feet.

of

The catalogue of earthquakes that have shaken the Delta is a long one, though only extending over a little more than one hundred years. Captain Baird Smith enumerates, in his Memoir of Indian Earthquakes, one hundred and sixty-two distinct earthquakes between the years 1800 and 1842; many these convulsions were felt in the Delta. Captain Baird Smith likewise refers his readers to an interesting account of a great storm and earthquake that devastated Calcutta in 1737, pub-. lished in the Gentleman's Magazine printed in 1738-39, which runs thus:

"In the night between the 11th and 12th October 1737, there happened a furious hurricane at the mouth of the Ganges which reached 69 leagues up the river. There was at the same time a violent earthquake

:

which threw down a great many houses along the river side in Golgotta (Calcutta) alone, a port belonging to the English, two hundred houses were thrown down, and the high and magnificent steeple of the English Church sunk into the ground without breaking. It is computed that 20,000 ships, barks, sloops, boats, canoes, &c., have been cast away; of nine English ships then in the Ganges, eight were lost, and most of the crews drowned. Barks of 60 tons were blown two leagues up into land over the tops of high trees of four Dutch ships in the river three were lost with their men and cargoes; 300,000 souls are said to have perished. The water rose forty feet higher than usual in the Ganges."

The steeple of the Church was described to have been lofty and magnificent, and as constituting before this period the chief ornament of the settlement.

Upon the 11th of November 1842 occurred a severe earthquake of which Calcutta appeared to be the centre of emanation; the shocks extended to Darjeeling in the Himalayah mountains or 300 miles North; to Chittagong or 250 miles on the East; and to Monghyr or 210 miles on the West; it was also felt on board the Agincourt, seventy miles South of the Floating Light.

That the surface of the Soonderbuns has more than once sunk below the level of the ocean cannot be doubted; the evidences of subsidence are too palpable to be misunderstood, and we know also that the whole coast from Cape Negrais to Akyab on the Eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal is now undergoing the process of upheaval. This fact was brought to notice in 1840, by means of the nautical surveys of the Brig Childers, when engaged on the lowest coast of Arracan. From these surveys

"It appears that the Island of Reguain or Flat Island, as well as all the other islets and rocks on that part of the coast of Arracan, is undergoing a process of upheaval. The whole coast from Akyab to Cape Negrais, is indented by deep and narrow gulfs, similar to the fiords of Scandinavia. This District lies within the prolongation of the great volcanic band of the Sunda Islands, which extend from Java to Sumatra, Barren Island and Narcondam: aud indeed all the Islands on the coast of Arracan bear evident marks of subterranean fire. In the Island of Cheduba alone, 300 miles South East from the Sandheads, in latitude 18.51 North, Longitude 93.28 East there are two mud volcanoes which rise to a height of from one hundred to two hundred feet. This line of upheaval is in the direction of N. W. by N., to S. E. by S. It is one hundred geographical miles in length, and varies in breadth from twenty miles to a very narrow strip of Islets and rocks. The upheaval has been greatest in the middle of the line. At the Tevvibles it was 13 feet; at different parts of the N. W. reefs of Cheduba 22 feet; at the North point of the Island 16 feet; at the middle on the West coast 13 feet; at the South end 12 feet; and the Islands South of Cheduba to Foul Island 9 to 12 feet. The first symptoms of upheaval appeared about the year 1750 or

1760, on the occurrence of a great earthquake by which the sea was driven over the land and the effects of which were felt as far as the City of Ava. An earthquake is said to have occurred one hundred years earlier, and the inhabitants believe that a simliar phenomenon occurs every century."*

In addition to the above we may state, that in the Island of Kyouk Phyoo, 35 geographical miles North or nearer the Soonderbuns, a volcanic eruption took place suddenly, east of the station, at 6 P. M. in June 1852. The Calcutta Daily Papers say:

"On Christmas eve 1855 the Island was illuminated by a most magnificent sight, a huge column of fire was thrown up by the Volcano which lighted up the Island for miles around." "In April 1857 about 10 a. M. the Volcano was again in commotion."

Whilst the coast about Ramree and Reguain was rising, we find that it was sinking at Chittagong, for we learn from the Philosophical Transactions, Volume LIII., and from the Journal of the Asiatic Society, Volume X., pp. 351-433, as condensed by Sir James Lyell, that

"The town of Chittagong in Bengal, was violently shaken by an earthquake on the 2nd April, 1762, the earth opening in many places, and throwing up water and mud of a sulphureous smell. At a place called Bardavan a large river was dried up; and at Bar Charra, near the sea, a tract of ground sunk down, and 200 people, with all their cattle, were lost. It is said that sixty square miles of the Chittagong coast suddenly and permanently subsided during this earthquake, and that Ces-lung-Toom, one of the Mug mountains, entirely disappeared, and another sunk so low, that its summit only remained visible. Four hills are also described as having been variously rent asunder, leaving open chasms from thirty to sixty feet in width. Towns which subsided several cubits were overflowed with water; among others Deep Gong, which was submerged to the depth of seven cubits. Two volcanoes are said to have opened in the Seeta Cunda hills. The shock was also felt at Calcutta. While the Chittagong coast was sinking, a corresponding rise of the ground took place at the Island of Ramree and at Cheduba." (See Map.)

As we are writing, the earthquake of the 24th of August 1858, so distinctly felt in Calcutta on that day, is still being written about in the daily journals; it appears that Prome in Burmah, barely fifty miles East of the active volcanoes at Ramree and Cheduba, has suffered considerably, many pagodas have been shaken down and houses destroyed. A correspondent writing from Kyouk Phyou gives the following graphic description of this severe earthquake.

"The 24th of August 1858; We had rain all yesterday and toJohnston's Physical Atlas,

day; in all the Pluviometer showed 7-3 inches. The weather 'was anything but cheerful. There was a heavy sombre ill-fore'boding, nasty Arracan atmosphere pervading the whole of the Island. In the midst of this, the H. C. S. V. Proserpine had 'just undergone some repairs, and had started early in the morn'ing for Akyab, but she had not made much way when cer'tain indications in the Barometer induced the Commander, Cap'tain Eales, to return and anchor again opposite the wharf. The day passed on drearily till between 4 and 5 P. M. a slight shak'ing of the floor was first perceptible (such as would be felt when a person heavily treads the boards of an old house,) this was suddenly followed by a rumbling noise and a vibratory motion of the ground, till the earthquake became so violent that the stoutest 'heart was obliged to fly his house. An officer writing to a friend on the occasion said, "I never in the whole course of my life felt anything like it. Indeed it was terrific in the extreme." The rocking of the earth had so confused many that for a while, they seemed as if they had lost the power of utterance. This state of the upheaving vibratory action of the earth from E. to W. lasted for about 2 minutes, and then suddenly ceased, 'but in that short time the injury to property was extensive. No 'lives were lost but an idea may be formed by the following de• tail.

The Magistrate, Captain F. W. Ripley, fled in the rains and 'with some friends reached the beach-his house being perfectly new escaped unhurt. Several clocks were tossed off their brac'kets, and much valuable property completely smashed to pieces. "The Military Officer, Lieutenant Evans, Commanding Detachment A. L. Battalion, had every thing belonging to him well shaken, his crockery and glass-ware and sundry articles on shelves knocked to pieces. His house, which is old, stood out bravely, though dreadfully mauled.

C

"The Medical Officer in charge of the Station, with his infant child and wife, ran out and sought shelter under a friendly tree, but all his articles of a fragile description shared the same fate as above.

"The Salt Superintendent, Mr. J. Hind, has had his house almost rendered untenable, and much property which can'not be named utterly destroyed. The School House, the • Commissioner's Circuit bungalow, as also the Cutcherry much and seriously damaged. The Principal Jail gate lost its upper part of solid masonry. It is said that several pagodas have been upset and toppled down hill; the earth opened in varied places, and a peculiar bluish soft sandy matter devoid of any smell exuded from them, and finally the horrible scene closed by an eruption from the volcano. In fact such a fearful convulsion of