The Great Assam Earthquake 12 June 1897 See illustrated Supplement to SRL article
Calcutta 27 May 1897 C258/62 Mr. O is off to Simla tomorrow evening and
has been giving me directions today about the office. I shall have very little to do. Only to sign a few papers now and then. He says that he will be back on the
20th June. He is going to Naini
Tal after Simla to see how the new
drainage scheme works when the monsoon bursts. There's 5
o'clock striking now and I want to go off and have a round of golf.
Calcutta 28 May 1897 C258/62
After much thought I have got myself a bicycle! You need not think
that I have been very extravagant for though it is a very good one with nearly
new tires it only cost 140/- and I shall easily be able to sell it for that in
two months time. I was thinking of
hiring one but that would cost more, about 30/- a month , and I would have
recovered nothing of it.
Mr. Oldham did not go to Simla after all yesterday. He had an accident out driving on
Thursday. His pony came down crossing
the tramlines and both Mr. O and Dr. Anderson were thrown out & the former
felt so much shaken that he did not care for a long journey yesterday. He is going tonight and has just been
to give me final directions for running the office in his absence. It is lucky for him that he was not
smashed up, for it might have been a very bad accident. The trap was knocked about a good deal.
He has asked me to take it out now and then while he is away to exercise his
horse, so I shall be able to swagger about in fine style.
---he indicates he is now playing (and winning) at billiards ,
and has ground 5 rock sections.
Calcutta 30 May 1897 C258/62
I drove over to Howrah after dinner [on the 29th?] to see Mr. O
off and came back with Dr Anderson in the middle of a dust storm. Soon after I got back it started to
rain very heavily. This morning I
rode down to the zoo ….
Calcutta 1 June 1897 C258/62
La Touche indicates he has been busy cutting more rock sections
Calcutta 1 June 1897 C258/62
Played golf by
himself---My punkah
wallah has made himself very comfortable. Now has 25 slides made.
Calcutta 3 June 1897 C258/62
La Touche mentions numerous songs the music for which he now
has etc
Calcutta 4 June 1897 Mss Eur C258/62
That bicycle is a great comfort for I can run home, change and get
a cup of tea and be back again in no time.
Simla 4 June 1897 Mss Eur C258/55.12.
Geological Survey Office,
My Dear la Touche,
I got up here
[19]
dog-tired on Monday evening. The
journey was pretty hot and the tonga more wearisome than ever. It is nice and cool at present, and no dust, as there has been a lot of
rain, but it seems drying up today.
I have had a note
from Noetling
[21]
who expects
to be in Calcutta by 21st but will telegraph from Bombay. He wants the cashier babu to let his servants know, and you might
send an office chuprassie to Howrah to meet him. I do not recollect when his leave is up exactly, but he cannot return to
duty more than 14 days before the end of his leave. Bose
[22]
must move out of his room, either into the middle of the library, or if Grimes
has taken that, into the small room.
I am sending some
proofs, those of Noetling's have a lot of figures in them which must compared
with the original ms. This is on the waiter beside my writing table, & Bose can do the comparison. Any corrections necessary should be
made in red ink.
Holland
[23]
wants a duplicate set of page proofs of the Corundum manual. Let the press be asked for another copy
of those already submitted and have a separate letter written to the press, in
supression of all previous instructions, telling them to send two copies of all
proofs for us. I find duplicate
copies are so often wanted that it will be better to make the practise a
uniform one.
I enclose a slip
giving the number of the Atlas sheets that Smith
[24]
wants, Have these sent off as soon as possible. I propose leaving here on Tuesday morning next. There is a big wedding which I should
go to if I stopped, & I would rather avoid such functions while I may.
Middlemiss
[25]
wants atlas sheets - uncoloured -
of the Salem and Coimbatore districts. Get Blyth to look them out and have them dispatched to him.
Yours sincerely,
R. D. Oldham
Calcutta 6 June 1897 C258/62
Sunday? This
morning I went to early service at 6:30 at the cathedral then a bike ride to
the zoo in the cool air.
Calcutta 7 June 1897 C258/62
I had a long letter from Mr. O this morning. He is going on to Naini Tal tomorrow to escape a big wedding at
Simla
Calcutta 8 June 1897 C258/62
---buys some Indian clubs for exercise--meets McDonald the
editor of the Englishman who is a "chum of Mr. Griesbach" etc and who believes the
Government gave him a bad time about his reporting of Afghanistan.
Calcutta 9 June 1897 C258/62
---50 slide sections now are done
Calcutta 12 June 1897 C258/62
He remarks about rain and other news but the letter was
evidently sent before 5 pm, when
violent waves from the Shillong Plateau earthquake shook Calcutta. He remarks on news of a military
engagement "terrible
affair in the Lochi Valley. I see
that the son of Sir J. Brown has been killed…
Calcutta 13 June 1897 C258/62 Friday?
My own darling wife Nancy,
I am very much exercised
in mind today as to whether I should telegraph you or not, to set your mind at
rest about me, supposing you have heard of the earthquake here. I really don't
know what to do. If you have heard
of it and I do telegraph I am afraid when you see the telegram coming you will
jump to the conclusion that something has happened to me, and that would not be
good for you, & on the other hand if I don't telegraph you will be anxious
till you get this, but if anything had happened to me you would probably have
heard of it, and I think it is probably better not to send one. You are so brave my darling that
I am sure you will keep a quiet mind till you do hear from me.
Now to tell you all about
it. It was really a most alarming
experience. I have felt in a good many earthquakes out here, but nothing so
like as bad as this one. I was
lying in the sofa of my room here at the hotel, which is on the upper story,
having my tea when it began, just at 5 o'clock. At first it was very gentle, just a slight rattling of doors
etc, and I thought it would be soon over, but it got worse and worse until the
floor of the room was heaving like the deck of a ship at sea. I thought it was time to leave then and
started for the door, but remembered that I had no coat on and went back for
it. I confess I was most
frightened in those two or three seconds I was getting my coat than I have ever
been before. When I got out on the
landing I found every one getting down the stairs as fast as they could, some
of the men in pajamas. Down below
it did not feel as bad, but we all got out on the maidan as soon as possible, where we could see
the houses and even the trees rocking to and fro. It was a very long earthquake, lasting between 4 and 5
minutes.
I might have
stayed in my room all the time. There is not a crack to be seen anywhere, and there are very few in the
hotel anywhere, but many houses are perfectly ruinous, and the people in them
have had to turn out. One family
has come into an unoccupied room in the museum. Some houses have come down altogether, but as far as I can
find out, no lives have been lost. It began so gently that everyone had time to get out into the open
before the worst came. One lady I
hear was in her bath and had a very narrow escape. Her husband I believe let this out!
Mr. Hayden's house was badly cracked, and he was afraid to sleep on his
own room last night and another man had a punka rigged up in the cow shed and slept
there. I saw Sydney this
morning and she said that her home is a good deal damaged. It seems to me that not one of the older
houses has escaped, and most of them will hardly be habitable during the
rains. About 20ft of the cathedral
spire has been knocked off, & I have got permission to go up tomorrow
morning and make some measurements and take some photos.
I
have got as many of the survey men as I could get hold of at short notice to go
around and take photos, & Mr. Hayden and I have been hard at work all the
morning. We went to the old
cemetery where there are a lot of tall pillars and obelisks and got a couple of
very interesting overthrows which will help us to calculate the direction and
force of the earthquake.
The old museum has suffered badly and a great many cases in our
galleries are smashed in by falling plaster. I must be off now to see if the photos I have taken are all
right, and get some more before it gets too dark. They begin to clean up things so quickly here that one has
to rush round at no end of a pace. I am going to photo the town hall and High Court this evening. I hear they are both badly
damaged. Altogether it has been a
most exciting time. I think it
very unlikely indeed that we will have another. It is very seldom that they come together.
I am anxiously waiting for news from outside Calcutta. I wonder if you felt it up there. It
has been felt in a great many places even as far as Karachi I hear. So perhaps you did feel it. I have written so much about this that
I have little space left to thank you for your dear letter of 10th & for sending
me Edith's. I was very glad of it,
but I am sorry that Lizzie and Emma seem so little better. I must see about the pockky hankies for
Avice. Give the darling child a
kiss from me and a kiss from baby. My darling love I love you always. Goodbye my own sweetheart.
Ever your loving husband,
Tom
Calcutta 14 June 1897 C258/62
My own Darling Nancy
I have only time to write to you a very scribbly letter this
evening. I have been out all day
taking photos and making measurements and am pretty well tired now. First of
all we, Mr. Hayden and the rest of us, as many as I could get together went to
the cathedral the top of the spire of which has come down and made some
measurements which were very interesting. I had got permission from Mr. Luckman the chaplain to go up on the roof. The outer corrugated iron roof has been
marked in various places by falling bricks but the inside was protected by the
ceiling and is scarcely damaged. Then we went off in different directions to photograph. I got 3 very good pictures and went
over several houses. The damage
done is enormous and it will cost lakhs to put it right. A great many houses ought to be rebuilt
entirely but the native owners will probably only patch them up till the next
big earthquake comes and then they will collapse entirely. The worst of it is the monsoon is
coming on, in fact it has already broken, & most of the houses leak like a
sieve. I was dining with the
Sarkies last night and some heavy rain came in. The water was pouring in down the sides of the walls, and
their house is by no means so bad as some. Today the streets have been full of furniture going from
houses that are badly crushed to any place that the unfortunate people can find
that is less damaged. The hotel is
crammed full mostly from people from Mr. Mouk's other boarding houses. I determined after all to wire to you
this morning as I was anxious seeing there was no news from Mussourie in
today's paper, and it was said to be very bad at Darjiling. So I was greatly relieved to get your
answer about 2 o'clock. This must
go. Goodbye my sweetheart. My love to the darling children & a
kiss & a hug. My best love to
you dear wife.
Your own husband
Tom
Calcutta 15 June 1897 C258/62
My own dearest Nancy,
It is just as well that I did telegraph to you yesterday for by
some chance or other there was no letter from you this morning and if I had not
heard yesterday from you I should have been horribly anxious. We are still engaged investigating the
earthquake trying to get as much information as possible before the rains come
for a great many of the damaged house will be falling if heavy rains come and
it will be impossible to say if the damage was caused by the earthquake or by
the rain. I think though we
have got nearly all the information we can in Calcutta already. There have been some heavy showers
today and one is now going on. I
have been trying to print some of my photos on blue paper but there is not
sunshine enough. I hope to be able
to send you one tomorrow. The
English mail will not be in till tomorrow evening. Very late this week. I am afraid they will have an anxious time at home , for some idiot is
sure to have telegraphed a secretarial report home. The account in today's "Pi" is utterly
absurd. Hardly any lives, 3 at the
most so far as I can find have been lost, and the damage is nothing like so
great as they report. I have
telegraphed today on seeing the Pioneer to Simla to the head of the Reo. &
Agril Dept. to suggest that he should wire to the Secy of
state to contradict such exaggerated reports. I shall very likely get a wigging for it but it seemed to be
my duty to do so. Goodbye my own
dear love. Give a love and a kiss
& a hug to darling Avice and baby for me. My best love to you sweetheart.
Ever your own husband
Tom
Calcutta 16 June 1897 C258/62
My own darling wife
I don't know what has happened to the post up your way at
all. There was no letter again
from you this morning and only got
it when I came back here from the office at 5:30. ---I was out again with Mr.
Haydn earthquaking. We went
through the Baru Bazaar but could see very little damage done there, hardly a
crack even. Then we went to the
general hospital which the Pioneer man I see says in today's newspaper is in
ruins and found it quite intact hardly a crack to be seen. I have printed some of my photos on
blue paper today and enclose one of them. ---Tom
Calcutta 17 June 1897 C258/62
The excitement abbout the earthquake is calming down a it but it
is still the main topic of conversation. A good many people are nervous about a prophesy that there is to be
another soon but no one heard of
it till this one had come and one of course can foretell such things. We had a few very slight shakes
since but that was to be expected. After the 1885 earthquake there were smaller shocks till the end of
September. I went to a concert
last night but it was a rather poor affair. Mr. Vredenberg played Mendelssohn's concerto and a waltz
very well but the piano he had was a very inferior one. He plays most splendidly. Did I tell you that I went to a
practice of Mr.Surkies orchestra on Monday when they played the same
concerto. Mr. V at the piano. It was grand to hear him, I want to get him to play an
accompaniment now and then for me when I get my book. He and his mother were at the hotel . They were turned out of their house by
the earthquake---
Tom
Naini Tal, 17 June 1897
[26]
Mss Eur C258/55.13. Geological Survey office,
My dear La Touche
I
have just got your letter of 15th. You seem to have done everything that could have been done except send
me full news by wire and I am much obliged to you for what you have done. I have just wired that Hayden should go
to Darjeeling as soon as possible. The direction you give at Calcutta places the seismic vertical somewhere
about the Garo Hills or further north in the Himalayas, probably the former and
the Darjiling observation will be valuable in deciding this while the heavy
rains there will obliterate the marks of the earthquake. The stations along the line will give
information too but it would be well to get particulars of damage done from the
G.B. R.
[27]
before starting.
I think I shall leave
here on Friday next.
Yours
sincerely,
R. D. Oldham
Calcutta 18 June 1897 C258/62
I have been very busy all day - out at 7 to photo a house about 2
m away. Office grinding rocks and
developing photos all day and afterwards to the maidan to take a photo of the cathedral spire
with a telescopic lens we have in the office and which will show every crack in
the top of it. I am glad that you
had heard nothing about the earthquake till you got my telegram or you would
have been anxious. I was never in
any danger my dear and might have sat in my room till it was all over, but when
the room is reeling about one like that I feels safer outside.
The news from Shillong is very bad. The CC and his wife had a narrow escape, and two Europeans
that I knew - Mr. McCabe and Mrs. Rossenrode, a retired surveyor who owned some
houses up there were killed. Edith
and Harry knew Mr. McCabe very well. Mr. Oldham has woke up
at last to the magnitude of the affair and is coming down at once. He felt hardly anything at Naini
Tal.---Tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday are holidays . I rather wish they weren't for I want to get on with my work
and these holidays interfere with it---Tom
Calcutta 19 June 1897 C258/62
---It was a holiday at the office but we were all there developing
photos & Mr. Hayden getting ready to go up to Darjiling to make
observations. A great deal of the
line is broken down and he will have to do that part of the journey by trolley,
so he will not get up there till Tuesday. I developed two big photos of the cathedral with the telescopic lens and
they have turned out beautifully. You can see every brick and crack at the top of the spire. I think the report on this earthquake
will be the best illustrated one in existence . We must have somewhere about 50 negatives to choose
from. I had a telegram from Mr.
Smith this morning. They are both all right but I expect the have had a very
rough time of it, though he does not say if they were turned out of their
house.
An utter stranger has just walked into my room thinking it was someone
else's, one of the results of living in a hotel. He retired with profuse apologies…….Tom
Calcutta 20 June 1897 C258/62
Mr. Oldham is to be here tomorrow morning and will take the
direction of affairs off my hands. I had a letter from him this morning
thanking me for what I had done which is rather decent of him. I have been doing some printing today on bromide
paper as I want to send a short account of the earthquake home to Nature by
this mail, but I could get none of them quite finished (dried I mean) by the
time I came here to tea. I also went to get a photo of the Scotch
Kirk and the Jewish Synagogue spires with the telescopic lens but the light was
too bad. I must try again in the morning.
I did the very same thing this
evening that I told you another man did to me the other day -walked into a
perfect stranger's room by mistake and had to retire with apologies. The fun of it was that he was so like
the man I expected to see that I did not see my mistake till I had spoken to
him for about a minute!
Mr.
Hayden went to Darjiling yesterday and is probably somewhere on a trolley at
this moment. He will have a very
interesting journey.
Calcutta 21 June 1897 C258/62
La Touche first apologizes to Nancy for telegraphing that he is
heading off up the Brahmaputra to investigate Gauhati and stations along the
river. " I am going to take the Rajputana
notebooks and maps with me and work at my report on the steamer, There are so many distractions down
here that I have not been able to get much of it done yet. I have nearly enough
rock slides cut to keep me going for the time I shall be at Mussourie and after
all I don't expect to be away more than a fortnight or three weeks. I aim to do only the stations along the
river so that I shall not have to do any camping, and shall be able to go
everywhere by steamer. I rather
like the idea of seeing Assam again as you know , but I only wish you were with
me. You are better where you are though , as there may be some discomfort owing
to some dak bungalows being wrecked etc. Luckily Col. Maxwell, a very old
friend of mine, is at Gauhati and I know he will do all he can to help.
Mr. Oldham's arrival has
been like that of a bombshell. Mr.
Vredenberg is sent off up to the E. I R.y and Grimes to Sylhet and
Cachar, Hayden has already gone to Darjiling. I have been very
busy all day getting things ready. Of course I shall travel as light as possible . Korba and 2 chaps will go with me…..
Calcutta 22 June 1897 C258/62
I have been very busy all day as you may suppose. In the first place I got up at 6 and
spent the morning before breakfast writing an account of the earthquake for "Nature" to go
home by today's mail. I showed it
to Mr. Oldham , who approved of it. I was rather afraid he would sit on the idea. ---I wanted you this morning very much o
read over that paper and say whether you approved!---
Steamer Afghan, Serajgunje 23
June 1897 C258/62
The steamer stops here I find about an hour so there is time to
send you off a letter to you and tell you how I am getting on. I go away from Calcutta at 10 o'clock
last night very comfortably after dinner. I rode my bicycle which I am taking with me to the station having sent
the servants and the baggage on in a ghari. It was a very hot close night in the train and I did not get
to sleep for a long time but I
made up for it this morning on board the steamer. As I was getting into the Ry. carriage I recognized a man
whom I had known well in Shillong, Major Priestley, who was adjutant of the
Volunteers while I was a commandant. He has been to Kashmir and is on his way to Shillong, if he can get there,
which is doubtful as it said that the road is broken down in many places. Our other traveling companion was Mr.
Aitken who came out with us on the Bengal. I thought I recognised him, but could not remember his
name. This is a very comfortable
boat and we have such a fine large 2 berth cabin to ourselves. There are 3 other passengers whom I
don't know, all tea planters I think. I was to have stayed at Serajgunge to look at a factory chimney which
was overturned by the earthquake but I hear the place is 6 miles off and that
every house including the dak bungalows in the place is wrecked so I shall have
to write and make some arrangement for staying there first, and I am going on
to Dhubri on this boat---Tom
Steamer Afghan 24 June 1897 C258/62
There is not much news to give you today. We are still pounding up the river and
are now just off the end of the Garo Hills, which don't seem to have altered
much since I saw them last. The river is very full- nearly up to the banks so we can go straight ahead
most of the time and are making a quick passage. We ought to get to today's stopping place in an hour or two
and will get a run on shore then. It is at the end of the Garo hills and there is road there to Tura. I hear they have suffered a good deal
from the earthquake there but it would hardly be possible for me to go up there
at this time of year without elephants. There was a heavy shower of rain a short time ago and
it looks as if more is coming, There
seen to be a great many more landslips than usual on the sides of the Garo
Hills. No doubt some of them have
been brought down by the earthquake---I shall be able to post this from Rohmari
where we stop tonight.---
Dhubri 25 June 1897 C258/62
The steamer got here at 3 o'clock and I came onshore at once and
went off to see the District Commissioner - a man I had never heard of before, a Mr. Halifax, he asked me at once to stay with him as
long as I was here and as the dak bungalows is in ruins - here I am. He had a very narrow escape from his
own bungalow, which is the worst I have seen yet. Absolutely nothing but a shapeless heap of bricks. He was reading at the time when the
earthquake came and had only just enough time to run out when the whole thing
came down. His is living now camp
fashion in a bungalow with nothing but mat walls and a timber roof belonging to
the local board. Nearly every
house in the place is a wreck. the
doctor an old friend of mine, is living in his stable, with a few sticks of
furniture he has saved---There are two or three interesting results of the
earthquake here which I shall have to investigate critically tomorrow and make
plans & measurements of them. The bungalows don't help one much they are so utterly smashed up. They still have slight shocks here,
there was one 5 minutes ago which shook the house quite distinctly but the
people are getting quite used to them and only say - Oh here's another (!) when
they come.
It is most extraordinary to see the way the ground has cracked and
opened about here. All along the
river banks and on the roads in every direction there are huge fissures and
generally mud and water has been thrown out from them. Mr. Halifax says that a large quantity
of the crops have been destroyed in his district and there will very likely be
some famine but I hardly think from what I have seen of the crops coming up the
river that they can have been damaged much.
I'm afraid you will find this letter very uninteresting, No I don't mean that, for I know you to
be interested in what I am interested in, but my head is full of earthquakes,
and my heart is full of love for you. ………
My dearest love to you sweet,
Your own husband
Tom
Dhubri 26 June 1897 C258/62
La Touche notes that despite instructions his mail is not being
forwarded from the Museum in Calcutta and that he has not heard from Nancy for
a week---
I did a great deal of work here this morning and made some
measurements but most things are so entirely broken up that we cannot make much
out of them. There has been a good deal of rain today which has made it much
cooler. It was a very hot night
last night but I got a good deal of sleep all the same. We are to dine tonight with the forest
man Mr. Campbell. He is only
lately married. I remember his
wife as a little girl 16 years ago up at Tura. Her father was doctor there and pulled me through my first
bout of fever. Dr. Halifax is
waiting for me to go over to the club with him so I cannot write to you much of
a letter.
I have been
writing as hard as I can go all the afternoon making notes on the earthquake
and letters to various people so you must forgive this short scribble of a
letter. I shall most likely go up
the river tomorrow to the next station Goalpara. Every house they say is wrecked there and I must take a tent
with me. I hope it won't rain
much, but I shall be able I expect to get quarters in a ghat in the river if it does.---Tom
Dhubri 27 June 1897 C258/62
I am waiting now for the steamer to come up to take me on the next
stage of my journey up the river. This morning I was out again taking photos and measuring things and I
think I have seen everything of interest here, Mr. Halifax and I dined with the Campbells last night. Mrs. C. sings rather nicely but has not
a strong voice, and we all sang more or less. They want me to stay a day on my way down the
river. Their house was not much
damaged by the earthquake. A lot
of plaster came off the walls, and they lost nearly the whole of their glass
and their piano was filled with dust, but the house is quite safe. Did I tell you that the doctor is
living in his stable? His house is
a mere shell with the roof still over it. I have just finished packing up and
my things are going down to the ghat. I have not been
able to use my bicycle as all the roads have been too much broken up, but I dare say I shall find it useful at
Gauhati---Tom
Goalpara 28 June 1897 C258/62
I am now really seeing here what the effects of the earthquake
have been, it is even worse than Dhubri. I came ashore early this morning when the steamer left and walked
through the bazaar. Nearly all the
houses in it are half buried, up to the eaves in sand and mud which was thrown
out from cracks in the ground, and it is a wonder that most of the people were
not buried. Only two of the
European houses are standing at all: the steamer's agent, who is putting me
up, and the mission bungalow,
which was built entirely of timber. The walls of this are of chukka and plaster and are gaping everywhere, but the roof is
sound. I have counted 15 distinct
shocks since 3 o'clock this morning and the seem to be getting more frequent as
the evening comes on, but they are all very mild and just shake the house. One generally knows they are coming
from the rumbling noise one hears just before them. The rest of the houses are
mere heaps of ruins, the Assistant Commissioner's especially. They are so bad I shall not be able to
make much of them about the earthquake. It might have come from any direction.
The AC's house
was built on the top of a hill with a very fine view over the river. I must go out tomorrow morning and take
some photos.---
Goalpara 29 June 1897 C258/62
---still no letters---
I took some photos this morning of the place, and have been
reading all the rest of the day. It has been too hot to work. There have been slight shocks
every now and then but I had a very good sleep last night and was not awakened
by any of them………..
The Jowetts came to dine here yesterday. They are very uninteresting people.
The letter I had today was from Mr. Ibbetson at Simla" Very many thanks for sending me the
earthquake photos. It was most
kind of you to think of it. I have
shown them to the Viceroy [Bruce],
Sir J. Workman, & many other people who have been greatly interested
them" which is very
satisfactory. There's another
quake, rather a smart shock. That
makes 18. It is a weird sensation
hearing them coming and wondering whether it will be a strong one or a merely a
noise, but they are very soon over.
Steamer
Falcon, near Gauhati, 30 June
1897 C258/62
The
Smith's came down last night, and I had a talk with them for about ¼
hour while the steamer was at Goalpara. They had been living since the
earthquake in a stable and glad to get that. The road is still destroyed for about 27 miles and not even
a pony can pass so they had to walk. I suppose Mrs. S was carried in a Tonga. He had some photos of smashed up houses, hardly a stone seems to be left upon
another. The church is merely a
heap of stones. I wonder if they
will try and build the station again or move somewhere else---There's Gahauti
in sight now---
Gauhauti
1 July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
My
own sweetest wife,
La
Touche starts by thanking her for the telegram and speculating why no mail has
been forwarded to him. Unbeknownst to him his mail forwarding instructions have
been misdirected.
Well here I am at
Gauhati again after so many years. The last time I saw this place, I was thinking continually of you my
dear, and so it is connected in my mind with you. It is looking just the same as usual from the river and its
only when you walk about and look at the houses, or what were houses, that you
see what a lot of changes have been done.
I am living with most of
the sahibs and mensahibs in the CCs yacht, which is the only place they have
to live at present, but they are having tents put up now. The DC Captain Gordon is not here but
Mrs. G welcomed me and is looking after me. She is another of the McNaught family, and has an unmarried
sister here with her. They are all
very much like each other, very pretty and considering the way must have been
brought up, wonderfully nice and ladylike. Indeed there is a high bred look about them all which one
can't help being surprised at. I
don't exactly know how many more of them there are but I believe there are
several. There is also a Mr. and Mrs.
Bill on board. He is steamer agent
here, an oldish man, and she is an oldish woman, stout and grey-haired. Then there is a whole lot of railway
men, not very interesting. We
bachelors (!) have one cabin and bathroom to dress in, and all sleep on deck. I went round this morning and saw a lot
of the damage and found some interesting falls of gate posts etc. Goodbye for the present my dear - I
will finish this tomorrow morning.
Your
own husband Tom
Gauhati
2 July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
My
own darling Nancy,
This
is really your birthday letter and I do hope it will get to you in time, but I
am much afraid it will be too late.
La
Touche then requests her, that in the absence of a present from him (that he
should have puchased before leaving Calcutta in anticipation of her forthcoming
birthday), she should go buy
herself a really nice brooch "for say 50/-", the money which he will send her from his travel
allowance---the letter contains no earthquake info.
Calcutta 3 July 1897 Mss
Eur C258/55.14 Geological Survey Office
My Dear LaTouche,
I just got your telegram and am glad to hear that you
were willing to go to Shillong and Cherrapunji. I have not got Smith's written report yet but from what he
says I see he has missed an opportunity to join you and work it out.
I got a letter from Watts the
engineer enclosing a record of the gauge readings of the Brahmaputra at
Gauhati, which show a sudden rise of 8 feet immediately after the earthquake
and gradual fall afterwards. This is partially due to falling-in of the
banks. I would be glad if you
would enquire about it.
When in Shillong get
a set of photos. There are two babus who have been photographing. Order a complete set, or leave out such
as you think has nothing to do with the earthquake, to be sent to me. Very likely I will order more copies of
some but that can be done afterwards. Also try to get photos of the monuments and buildings as they were
before the earthquake.
I have some other
evidence, in letters of Barisal guns occurring with the earthquake shocks but
they also are said to occur without, and to have been frequent before the big
earthquake. The evidence will want
careful sifting, however.
You are not altogether out
of luck in being away from Calcutta. The weather has been just awful - there is no other word for it - since
you left, bar the first two days, and today is as bad as any of them.
Yours sincerely,
R. D. Oldham
Gauhati
3 July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
find my bicycle very useful here as there are some pretty good roads and I can
ride along and see what are the best things to examine. The DC's head clerk has just been here
showing me the reports received from outlying places in the district. Some of them are very amusing:
one man says that "frightful rents formed themselves in the ground eating
up the things (cooking pots etc)
in many families", that "Topstones of some hills have fallen down and
some places have emanated red earth and ashes"! In places the crops have been half destroyed by sand and
floods, and it is very likely there will be a famine in some parts of the
province. It is a great blow for
poor Mr. Cotton. He was going to
do such great things to develop Assam and now he will want all the money to be
had to rebuild the stations, and roads and bridges. The babu told me today that
a temple not far from here, at least 300 years old is destroyed.
5:30
am: I meant to have written to you
yesterday evening but went for a bicycle ride instead out along the Shillong
road to see what it was like. I
came across two bridges which have been damaged by the earthquake and will have
to be rebuilt.
I should think
you are getting very tired of hearing about the earthquakes aren't you. It is still the principal topic of
conversaiton here and everywhere else in Assam and Bengal and I suppose it will
be until the people get settled some way or other. I am going out to do some photos this morning. It is a good morning for it - rather
cloudy and no wind. The weather
here the last week has been most extraordinary for the rains. There has been so much haze about.
I have asked
Mr. Oldham if I may not go back to Calcutta through Shillong and
Cherrapunji. I believe the road is
open nearly the whole way now and I should like very much to see what damage
has really been done. I don't
think Mr. Smith did very much except take pictures of buildings that had quite
tumbled down, which are not much use from a scientific point of view.
Gauhati
4 July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
shall probably go to Tezpur on Tuesday, and then if I don't hear of anything
worth seeing higher up the valley, I shall come back here and on to Calcutta,
via Shillong and Cherrapoonji. I
had a telegram from Mr. Oldham today to say I had better go that way, and I am
very glad of it for I should very much like to see what those places are like.
I have pretty much finished the earthquake work here and this morning took it
easy, but tomorrow I want to ride some distance up the Shillong road and to see
what the bridges are like. I
developed some photos taken here last night and they have all turned out very
well. It is hot work in the stuffy
little bathroom on board the boat. After I had done I went up on deck to go to bed at about 1o'c but could
not find my bedding anywhere and I had to come down and sleep on a couch in the
cabin. I found this morning that Korba had put my bedding down on
the wrong part of the deck, and the canvas screen, behind which Mrs. G and Miss
M sleep, was put up afterwards so that it was inside. I hope your hat was a success and knocked all the others in
church. It is such a comfort to be
getting your letters again.
Gauhati
6 July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
had a 60 mile ride yesterday up into the hills along the Shillong Road. I went as far as Mungpo, 30 miles from
here, and back again in the evening. The road is an excellent one but of course there are some long hills
which I had to walk. I am feeling quite fresh and jolly this morning and had a
first rate sleep last night, In
fact I went to sleep immediately after dinner which I don't often do. This will account for my not having
written to yesterday.
What with one
thing and another packing I have been kept busy all day and I am writing this
by the light of my bicycle lamp on board the steamer. I have just ridden down from the yacht and shall sleep on
board here as she leaves at 5 in the morning, We get to Tezpur tomorrow afternoon. Capt. Gordon the DC came back yesterday
afternoon, which I was very glad of as I wanted to talk to him about the earthquake. He has been making a tour through his
district with Col. Maxwell whom I also saw today. He is not a bit altered since I saw him last. You know I
have known him ever since I came to India, so he is an older friend than even
Mr. Fisher. I like Capt. Gordon
very well. He is a great relief
after seeing so much of these railway men, some of whom have very little
manners.
Tezpur
7 July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
The
steamer has been going since 5 this morning and we ought to be in Tezpur in an
hour or so - just 5 pm now. The
current is very strong up here and she does not get along very fast.
Tezpur
8 July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
went out this morning to see what I could in the way of things thrown down by
the earthquake, but I could not find much. The east end of the church has been knocked out and some
buildings are badly cracked, but none have come down entirely.
Tezpur
9 July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
took a photo of the church this morning and walked round looking for things
measure but could not find anything. Col. Gray lent me a letter to read written by a man whom the C.C. sent
out to Cherra soon after the earthquake to look after the people. It gives an extraordinary account of
the ruin along the road. For miles
and miles the whole of the road is utterly gone and all the bridges and rest
houses are smashed. The unfortunate clerks (European) at Shillong who had been
investing their savings in houses have lost everything.
I have
not had the least touch of fever yet, I am glad to say and hope I won't get any of it. So far I have had no
real hardship. Plenty to eat and drink and a good roof over my head at night
but I don't know how it will be up in the hills. However you may be sure I shall take good care of
myself and I have plenty of quinine and chlorodyne. I had a letter from Mr. O
yesterday. He says the weather has
been awful and that I am lucky to have escaped it. It is well that those riots did not come on while we were
going about earthquaking.
Gauhati
12 July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
In
the afternoon I had to pack and send my things off to Shillong with Bhola and
Janat Ali. Korba will go up
tomorrow by tonga. The road is
open the whole way now. This
evening I am going out on the railway with one of the engineers in an engine to
see what it is like. They have got it open for about 40 miles from here. I should not wonder if government gave
it up all together Here
comes Korba with my [?chile] and I must eat it and be off.
I have been out
all day on the railway which is really worth seeing. I went out 40 miles from here in a train starting at 7 this
morning. Every here and there the
embankment has sunk down and the rails are all twisted, but the engine somehow
or other gets along. Of course we
went very slowly, only 4 miles an hour or so over the bad places . It is very interesting to see how the
bridges have been affected by the earthquake In fact that is what I went out to see.
Calcutta 12 July 1897 Mss Eur C258/55.15. Geological Survey Office
My Dear la Touche
I got your letter of 8th and 9th yesterday, and sent a
telegram to you, directed to Shillong yesterday. Smith forgot a lot of things at Shillong, especially to take
measures of the overturned monuments, I also want to know the dimensions of the seismometer cylinders. I fancy they are the same as those in
the appendix to Mem.XIX
[28]
,
but there is no record of this.
I was interested to hear of the
twisted monuments. I hope you took
the old and present bearings of all. I don't know whether you know that with enough observations one can get
a very good direction out of them?
Grimes has gone from
Silchar down the A. B. Ry. leaving Sylhet for the present, so you had better
take it on your way down and I will send Grimes to Serajgunge.
Yours sincerely,
R. D. Oldham.
PS You might drop a
line to Grimes, c/o Station Master Chaudpur, A. B. Ry, telling him about
Serajgunge and how to get there.
Shillong 13th july 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
My
darling Nancy
Here
I am in Shillong again after many years and I only wish you were here with me
though perhaps under present circumstances it is just as well that you and the
children are not here. The place
looks much as usual at a distance though the trees have grown a great deal
since I was here and it is only when one gets among what used to be the houses
that one realizes what has happened. The walls and chimneys of all the houses are simply shapeless heaps of
stone. I am staying with Col.
Maxwell, living in a small tent while he is in one of his servant's
houses. His bungalow has not
fallen as it was built of [?ochre?lathe] and plaster, but the chimney came down
and wrecked the whole of the inside. The whole house is leaning to one side like a house in a nightmare.
I got away from Gauhati at
about 6 yesterday morning and I rode up to the half-way place, Mungpo, where I
had breakfast. It started raining
soon after I left and continued pretty much the whole way, but Korba who came
on in the tonga with my bedding
& some clothes caught me up at Mungpo, so I changed at once and took his
place in the tonga leaving him to
bring on the bicycle. He has just
arrived.
(3:30
pm on the 14th. I could not finish
this last night and anyway it would have been too late for the post). This side
of Mungpo there had been a great many landslips especially in the last 8 miles
but they had all been cleared sufficiently to allow carts to pass so we got
here about 5:30 pm. At about 15 miles from here a young fellow from the Forest
Dept. who has been working along the road down below, got into the tonga very
ill with fever and congestion of the liver. He looked very bad and felt the shaking of the tonga very much, but I hear he is much better this
morning. The last big bridge on
the road about 3 miles from here is entirely gone, so the rough [?path] has to
go round about 4 miles to get across the temporary bridge higher up the
river. This morning Col. Maxwell
and I walked round to take a general look at the damage, and then went to
breakfast at the Gaits'. He is
secretary. They are living in a
little kutcha built cottage in
their compound which has stood up very well. After that we went to see the Chief Commr Mr.
Cotton and I had a long talk with him and expounded my views on the shock. He had been reading the reports on the
Cachar earthquake of '69 and was
full of seismic verticals and other technical terms.
Tomorrow I must
begin taking measurements in earnest. There are a good many interesting things
to be seen in the cemetery where several tombstones, great heavy blocks of
marble or granite have been pushed sideways or twisted round and I have seen several gate pillars
which have been thrown over. Mr.
Smith apparently missed a great opportunity here for he only took photos of
some of the houses and made no
measurements of things like gateposts which tell one much more about the shock
that any number of wrecked houses. I expect our report on this earthquake will be the biggest and best
illustrated on record. It is most
extraordinary that so few people were killed here, for by all accounts the
houses came down with a roar
almost at the beginning of the shock. Of course there were very many narrow escapes. Colonel Maxwell was hit
by a stone from a falling chimney, and he told me of four children who were
having a tea party who were saved by their nurses picking them up and rushing
out, just as the chimney fell
smash on the table they were sitting at. Mr. Cotton gave me a graphic account of his
escape. He and Mrs. C. were in the
porch of their house just going for a drive, & when the shock came the
horse bolted, and just got them clear as the porch came down. Most people are now building
small temporary shelters to live in till the end of the rains, and some are making
themselves comfortable in tents. Having the floors boarded.
Altogether I am very
glad I came up here though it is sad to see the place as it is. They are all talking of removing the
place 1000 ft higher up the hill where it ought ot have been built at
first. If they do that in another
20 years or so it will be a really fine hill station. I got your dear letter of 7th this morning and I am very
glad to have escaped all the row in Calcutta. You might to tell Mr. Spring that the church is now an
entire ruin and of course the [?furniture] and windows are totally smashed, but
the tombstone is not much damaged.
Shillong 15th July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
spent all the morning and part of this afternoon measuring the monuments in the
cemetery; a great many of them
have been thrown down or shifted. You might tell Mr. Spring that the cross over his wife's grave fell over
but it is not injured in the least and can easily be put up again. The PWD are
going to put everything there straight as soon as things are settled down a
bit, and I spoke particularly today to the Exec. Engr. about Mrs. Spring's
grave. There's a little shock just gone by - shook the table distinctly. I must really see if I cannot rig up
some kind of seismometer for observing these little shocks. I am sure one could learn a lot about the
big one from them. This morning we
had two very respectable shocks (there another lasting quite a long time) but
people take very little notice of them now, only everyone objects to sleep
under anything like a roof. But I
think that everything in Shillong that can come down has already fallen
Shillong 16th July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
have been pretty busy today measuring gateposts and such all the morning and
rigging up a seismometer this afternoon. It is a rough sort of a thing made up of a lump of stone hung on a wire
for a pendulum, a few pieces of tin cut out of a biscuit box, a slip of bamboo
and a glass bead from a necklace I routed out of Golam Hyders's shop. It is not put up yet as I am getting a
small hut built to put it it, but I hope it will work. Several babus tackled me when I was out this morning and wanted to
know if the place was safer or whether it would disappear one fine day. I always tell them it is as safe as any
other place. These continued
shocks keep them in a state of panic. I have not come across any Mr. Bruces up here. There used to be some at Tezpur but I don't know where they
are now. I don't think there are
any of that name here,
Shillong 17th July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
….there
is a counter attraction in the shape of cricket, though I don't think I shall
go to it. I know so few people
here now. Col. Maxell generally
plays but he is very busy today and cannot go. Just image Mr. Cotton stopping
all games, as far as he could, for a month after the earthquake, at least he
would not allow any of the civil officers to play.
Shillong 18th July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
have my seismometer put up and am now sitting waiting for an earthquake to see
if it will work properly………There's a little shock now but I'm afraid its too slight
to affect my pendulum. Yes it did
move, but too slighlty to show anything definite.
Shillong 19th July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
This
morning I had a long tramp down to the Bishops Falls to photograph the
landslips there and did not get back to breakfast till nearly 1 o'c. Then all
the afternoon I was making prints of the earthquake diagrams I got with my
seismograph which is a great success. This morning we had a real good shock at 20 minutes to 2 which woke me
up, and I at once got up and went to see if the machine had acted and found a
nice little trace of the shock. There is a needle in it that makes a trace on a piece of smoked
glass. Then again at 10-minutes-to
we had another pretty severe shock, which also registered itself, and during
the day there have been several of them. I must be off to bed now, so good night my darling.
Shillong 20th July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
morning.
There was another good shock this morning which my seismograph duly registered,
and then there were one or two smaller ones at night
Later that day in a postcript to his letter
La Touche writes….
I
send you one of my earthquake diagrams . It shows how the ground moves but is magnified about 6 ½
times. So you see these shocks are
very small affairs really.
Limerick Villa, Simla 22 July 1897 Mss
Eur C258/15 Nancy replies to Tom
You tell me of your seismometer. Why did you not make me a
sketch of it? Is it because
I have never made a sketch of the drawing room for you, or of the view from the
house?
Shillong 22nd July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
We
have only had slight shocks today. Neither of them any good from my point of
view as they have hardly any effect on the seismograph, but perhaps we shall
get a good one tonight. There - a
slight shock at 6:26 pm.
Shillong 23rd July 1897 Mss
Eur C258 /63
I
have had a pretty tiring day. I
have finished the new seismograph but the hut for it is not entirely ready yet,
and I doubt whether it will be built by tomorrow evening which will mean I have
to stay here till Monday…..
I
shall have plenty of work to keep me going in Mussoorie and can do it there
just as well as in Calcutta, so unless Mr. Oldham is
cantankerous, and I don't see why he should be, I should be able to get
away to Calcutta in a week or so after I get there.
Shillong 24th July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
have been working all the afternoon at my earthquake report, drrawing out the
plans of the gateposts all to scale, and I think I shall go out and have a bit
of a walk. A cricket match as
usual on a Saturday has been going on just below the house all the afternoon,
but I cannot see the field on account of the trees. The Ghurka pipers are just now playing a Scotch reel. They and the band take it in turns to
play. As soon as the band stops
the pipers strike up and they play very well too. I see I have begun this on the wrong side [of the folded
paper]. I hope you won't mind very much. I got off my letter to father
today- 3 sheets! and another to Prof. Haddon telling him that an
ethnologist is wanted to come out and study the manners and customs of
these hill tribes before they get
more civilized. It ought to be
done at once for already many of their old customs have been given up and in a
few years they will be just like
any other natives. I wonder if my
letter will have any effect.
There is
a very absurd article in the Spectator on the earthquake,
imagining all sorts of things; that the natives will become more discontented with our rule in
consequence of it, and making generally the worst of it. They talk of a crore of towns being leveled (!) and have evidently taken
the exagerrated telegraphic reports seriously without waiting for the
facts. I must send it off to you.
25th
morning. It is a fine bright morning but there are a good many clouds
still hanging about. I hope to do
a good stroke of work at my report today. I have just been down to my seismograph to see if it registered any
quakes during the night, but there was only a very small one. I think it came aboout 2 o'clock. It will be rather a pill if there are
no more good shocks after the pukka instrument is put up.
Shillong 25th July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
have been very busy all day at these plans and have a good number of them
finished so I am feeling good! They take rather a long time to do but it is not difficult
work. I only hope that Mr. O will
appreciate it. There a has been a heavy shower of rain this afternoon,
and I expect those people who went up to the peak to have a picnic have got
wet. Col Maxwell and I had a walk before breakfast up to the military water
works about 2 miles from here. It
was very pleasant walking through the pine woods, with the pine needles
underfoot. There was a fairly strong earthquake shock about an hour ago (6
o'clock) but I don't think could have had any effect on my seismograph,. However, I must go and see. No, it has only moved the slightest
little bit. The Khaisas said that
there was to be a big shock at 5 o'clock today but it did not come off. Where they get these ideas from I don't
know, maybe they are traditions of former shocks. There's 7 o'clock just struck & I want to change and go
out for a stroll before dinner, so good bye for the present my dear.
26th
morning I have just come back from the PWD office where I have been
to see how my seismograph shed is getting on. They say it will be finished today so I hope to get away
tomorrow. It is a very hot bright
morning. I must go off now and see
the Chief Commissioner as I promised to do before I left, and tell him about
what I think of the earthquake.
The post
does not seem to have come in yet, at any rate Bhola has not come back from the
post office. I shouldn't wonder if
there has been a slip somewhere in the road after yesterday's heavy rains and
that the tonga can't get
through. I am going as far as
Maoflong tomorrow, about 12 miles & on to Cherra the next day. I hope it won't rain very much. Now I must go and see the "old
man" as he is usually called.
Shillong
27th July Mss Eur C258 /63
I
think this will be my last letter you will get from Shillong and I am sure you
will glad to hear I am on the move again. You must have thoght that I was never going to get out of this , but it
has not been my fault, dear, and I am as anxious as you are to be getting
nearer to you. This delay here has
been most aggravating and has tried my patience a gopod deal, but things are so
much at sixes and sevens that it is difficult to get anything done at all. The poor Exec Engineer is pulled every
way by doifficult people each wanting him to do something in the way of
building or repairing for them, and as he is a kind hearted fellow who can't
say no to anyone, he has had his hands fuill. I am up in pretty good time this morning 7o'clock striking
now. Firt of all I have to get my
things packed, then go to the stores and get a few things to take out with me
(biscuits, tea etc) then to the P.W. D. to put up the seismograph. The hut for it was not quite ready
yesterady evening. I shall start
myself after breakfast as I have only 12 miles to go and a rode that I can ride
along most of the way. It is a
fine bright morning but I should not wonder it is not raining out towards
Cherra. I had a long talk with the
CC yesrerday about the earthquake of course, and told him my views about the
cause of it. He has made himself
rather unpopular here by the way he behaved after the earthquake, as he seems
to have lost his head in a way, and sent aout all sorts of exaggerated reports
to the Govt. of India before trying to find out whether they were true or
not. I found him very genial and
pleasant to talk to .
Now I must go and
pack up as the coolies have come, so good bye my dear.
27th
July Maoflong Mss Eur C258 /63
My
own dearest wife
I am sure you
will be glad to see a different heading at the top of my letter & to know
that I have left Shillong at last. It was all I could do to get away today but I was determined to do
it. First of all the coolies Korba
brought said the road was so bad out this way that they could not get along it,
but I knew better and in fact I was able to ride most of the way, and except
for a mile or so where it is being re-metalled it was very good .
After breakfast I
went to the PWI office and set up the seismograph, The hut was barely finished and indeed while I was setting
it up the Chinaman who built it was putting on the door. As now it was up and I had explained
the working of it to the people who will have charge of it I started. Coming
out of Shillong in this direction there is a long climb of 5 miles, but I was
able to ride most of it. Then the
road keeps along the tops of the hills and is a good deal up and down but I
only had to walk about a mile altogether and got here at about 5:30, had some
tea and changed, and went over to see the missionaries (Welsh) who live
here. The dak bungalow is wrecked, of course, only the roof
standing, but a grass hut has been built and the khamsamah, a Khaisia who remembers my coming here before, gave
me a very good dinner, & produced a bottle of beer so I am well off. The
missionaries are living in a small house belonging to one of their
converts. They were full of their
experinence of the shock of course. I don't think there is very much here for me to see, but I shall have a
look round in the morning and then go on to Cherra. I was lucky today in getting no rain , but there is almost
certain to be some tomorrow between this and Cherra.
28th
Cherrapunji: The road between Maophlang
and this was very bad in places. In fact I had to carry my bicycle part of the way. On the worst part a good Khaisia
volunteered to carry it for me a good deal. It rained off and on most of the time, and since I got here
it rained a good deal. Now it is pouring. The dak bungalow is not finished yet so I have to put up in a
tent. Luckily there is no wind,
but the sand flies are awful. I am
going to bed to escape them
29th
10am Now it is pouring again. It is really aggravating as I want to go out and see what is
to be seen and take some photos, but it is hopeless in this weather. I sent a telegram last night, or
rather, wrote one out, to the commissioner of Sylhet asking him to send me some
boats to take me down from the foot of the hills to the steamer, but it is
still lying at the Telegraph Office as the line has broken down somewhere so
that will mean some delay. Korba
has just come in from Shillong. I
had to leave him there as he could not get a cooly to carry his box.
30th
July 1897 Cherrapunji Mss Eur C258
/63
It
cleared up nicely after breakfast yesterday and I was able to go out and do
some work. I found several
interesting things in the way of gate pillars overturned etc. Of course, every building of stone is
flat on the ground and the place looks quite different from what it used to do,
now that the ruins of the houses that were built here long ago, when it was a
sanatarium have dissappeared. While I was at tea tea Mr. Arbuthnot, the Depy. Commr walked in. He had come by another
road from Shillong so I missed him when he came out on Wednesday. He is going about to the different
villages to find out how many people have been killed. The first accounts were very much
exagerrated, and it is doubtful whether more than 500 or 600 were killed in the
whole of the hills. Most of them
were killed out of doors by landslips. In Cherra the people who stayed in their houses weree all right as the
walls are very low, and the roof held together, but those who ran out were
killed by the high walls they had built along the village streets falling on
them. After tea I went up to see
the missionaries, one of whom, Dr. Griffiths I used to know very well in the
old days. He was very glad to see
me & I sat and talked, about the earthquake of course, for over an hour. He says that what the Khaisias
feel most is that the stone boxes in which the ashes of the dead are kept have
been shaken to pieces. They
consider it a great disgrace that the ashes should be exposed to view. The cemetery (English) here is in a
woeful state. Most of the tombs
have fallen over and sunk down into the ground, which has all become a loose
sand.
Chattuck
31 July 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
I
have had a day of it and no
mistake, coming down from Cherrapunji. In the first place when I woke up at 6:30 it was pouring with as it had
done all yesterday and all night. However, the coolies turned up all right so we started of in the rain at
nine o'clock or thereabouts. All
the way down the hill it rained in torrents. At one place the road had been entirely carried away and I
had to scrable over boulders and wet clay, after sinking in over my ankles and
fording one or two good sized streams. I was very glad when I got to the bototm of the hill, for it did not
seem at all safe with so much rain and the hill side in such a loostened state
by reason of the earthquake. In
fact, a Mr. Peters, a half caste who is charge of the little railway at the
foot of the hill, and who lives in a bungalow about half way up, told me that
he had two or three narrow escapes from boulders crashing down. Luickily for me I met him at the foot
of the hill and he lent me his trolly to go out to Bhologanj where I was to get
my boats. The river was in high flood at the foot of the hill and was washing
over the railway embankment in several places. In one place the rails were hanging in the air, but the
trolly went over without accident, and in another the water was so deep over
the rails that it came up more thatn a foot over the the footboard of the
trolly. The coolies had great
difficulty in getting over these bad places but they all arrived soon after
me. Of course there was not a sign
of my two boats to be seen, and I felt very mad. Entirely wet through and not a dry spot of ground anywhere
except the little station house, which was just on a level with the water. I had had a telegram just as I left
Cherra from the Commisioner in Sylhet saying that he had arranged for boats to
meet me but when I got there I found that his telegram to the police had only
reached them this morning by post, though it was sent off the day before yesterday,
and of course it was too late for them to make any bandobast. However, after a little delay I got two boats from the village and soon
got into them, and at once had a change. My things had kept wonderfully dry considering the downpour & I
don't think I shall be any the worse.
I am waiting
now (8pm) for the steamer from Sylhet, as I am going down to Sinamganj, a place
about 30 miles down the river river tomorrow. The babus there
have been worrying Mr. Cotton with telegrams saying that they think the place
is sinking and he asked me to go down and see what they mean. It is rather a nuisance as I must come
back this way to go to Sylhet, but there is no other way of managing it, unless
I waste a whole day at Simanganj. As it is I shall get back here by the way-up steamer and to Sylhet on
Monday morning. I don't think I shall have to stay there for more than a day
and then away to Calcutta and you! You may be sure I shall not be a day longer away from you than can be
helped, but of course, until I see Mr. Oldham I cannot
fix a day for starting. I have got
a good deal of my earthquake report done and I hope to get the rest finished on
my way down the river, I should
like to be able to hand it to Mr. O all finished when I get to Calcutta.
Sonamganj
1 Aug. 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
You
know that I had intended to come down here this morning by steamer, see the
place and hear what the people had to say and go back to Chattuck by the
afternoon steamer and onto Sylhet tomorrow. Well I came down all right, the steamer came in very later
last night , about 11. But I went
on board and had a good sleep. I
had a great [deal of] talking all
day with the people here, planters and such like, whom were in a great panic
because they think the whole place is sinking. I think I was able to reassure them to some extent. The place is certainly unsafe close to
the river bank, which is much fissured, but further in it is all right, but
there is very little room for building houses as the only high ground is just
along the banks of the river and not more that 200 yds wide or so. Well I walked and talked with them till
4 o'clock when the steamer was due and then sat down to wait for it , but it
has never turned up , and now it is nearly 8 o'clock. Here I am then stranded with nothing to eat but a part of a
loaf, which luckily I got from the steamer for my breakfast, and some eggs
which the chowkidar of the rest
house is cooking for me. I am
lucky to have a sound roof over my head but it is rather aggravating instead of
getting a comfortable dinner on the steamer, I have to put up with a hard
boiled egg.
Steamship
Migi 2 August 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
At last I have got away
from Sonamganj where I was stranded like Robinson Crusoe on a desert Island
till this afternoon. The
steamer never turned up at all yesterday evening, she had run aground somewhere
down the river so I had to make my dinner of 4 hard boiled eggs my quota at two
this morning, and breakfast again of three, so you can imagine I haven't much
of an appetite for eggs just now.
The worst of it was that
just before breakfast time I heard the whistle of the steamer coming up the
river. Oho thinks I, I shall have a real good breakfast on board , and starte
off through the rain to the ghat. When I got there, there was the steamer
sure enough, but what was my disgust to find that she was going no further up
the river, but would turn round and go down to pick up the mails from
Dacca. Otherwise the Co. would get
fined under their contract, and ther I was and had to go back to my eggs.
I was so flabbergasted that I did
not even think of getting some biscuits or something from the steamer until it
was too late. However about 5
o'clock the next steamer came up and I got taken off muy desert island.
Sylhet
3 Aug Mss Eur C258 /63 --- Soon afterwards we arrived at
Chattuck when I had to change into a smaller steamer which runs backwards and
forewards to Sylhet, so here I am in Sylhet at last. I am feeling none the worse for my experiences.
4
August 1897 between Sylhet and Chatuck Mss Eur C258 /63
I
managed to finish all I could find to do at Sylhet this morning so I am getting
away from it a day earlier than I really expected to. But I was somewhat in suspence up till the last moment
for I had to telgraph yesterday to Calcutta for some money to me there and pf
course as usual, about here the telegraph line was out of order because of the
floods.---In the morning after making several measuremetns and plans in the
station I rode out along a fairly good road to a couple of tea gardens about 3
miles out, and had a look at the damage done there, though a great deal has
already been repaired. One of the
planters is a man whom I had met before at Shillong, a Mr. Turnbull. This
steamer shakes so I cannot write well.
In fact when we started
from Chattuck I was asleep and when the steamer began to move I had a very
vivid dream that I was in the field opposite the vicarage at home and that an
earthquake came on and fissure began to open in the ground. Now I thought I shall be able to see
exactly what goes on when these fissures open, & I got out my note book,
when I awoke and it was all a dream.
I feel quite jolly
that I am really getting nearer to you every minute my darling.
Steamship
Manipur 5 Aug 1897 Mss Eur C258
/63
---shall
not be able to post this until we get to Narianganj, near Dacca tomorrow
morning. La Touche's letter
describes being grounded and passing numerous bends on the way to Dacca.
6
Aug 9 pm At this rate we ought to get to Goalhindo early tomorrow
afternoon, but there will be a long wait till 9:30 in the evening when the
train for Calcutta starts. I have
done a good bit of my earthquake report and hope to get it nearly finsihed buy
tomorrow, at least all the drawings done.
I thought I had lost
my note book, the one in which I have made all the earthquake notes. What
should I have done if it had gone? I left it on board the steamer on which I went up to Chattuck the other
day, and did not discover that it was not in my dispatch box till I got to
Sylhet. I wired at once to the
agent at Neerangunj, and when I got there today I found to my great relief that
it had been found on board.
I
shall go & see Mr. O the first thing you may be sure and find out what he
has to say. Probably you will know the result of the interview before you get
this. I finished the plans and
sketches today, at least all except one or two at Cherrapunji which won't take
long. They cover about 30 sheets
of foolscap. I hope Mr. O will be
pleased with them.
Calcutta
8 August 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
My
own sweetest Nancy,
I can only send you a short
note this evening I am sorry to say as there is not much time to spare. I have been busy all day as you can
imagine. As soon as I arrived here
about 6 o'clock I had a cup of tea and got out my plans etc. and finished them
up for Mr. O's inspection. After breakfast I took them over to him and he was greatly
pleased with them - so after we had had a talk about my tour I asked him if I
might go to Mussourie & he said yes as soon as I had handed in my
earthquake report, so that was a great weight off my mind. I have been smiling broadly ever since. My own darling isn't it
delightful to think that we shall be together soon. I only wish I could start tomorrow but it will be as much as
I can do to get off by Wednesday evening there is so much to be done. It is lucky I have got so much of the
earthquake report finished , but there is still a good deal of writing to be
done and there are all those rocks to be put away and registered. However, I think I can manage it and I will of course let you know in good time how I will get on. The great thing
is that Mr. O doesn't want me to stop down here. Oh my
darling the time seems quite near now after all these weeks of waiting and the
uncertianty made it worse, I know
how much you have felt it my dear. I sent you a telegram as soon as the T. office was open and I hope you
will get it this evening instead of a letter. Dearest wife I long to see you, to look into your dear eyes
. Give Avice a love & a kiss
and & a hug and tell her Father is coming soon, and Baby a kiss too. I shall try and get your commissions done but perhaps shall not have
much time to spare.
My
dearest love to you my own sweet heart.
Ever
your own husband.
Tom
Calcutta
9 August 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
My
own Darling Nancy,
I
have been hard at work writing all day long and have really got a whole lot of
my earthquake report finished . I
wish the plaguey thing was quite done. I have got as far as the Shillong cemetery, and when that is done there
will not be very much more left. My own darling , it is sweet to work hard knowning that it means coming
neere to you but I really cannot say for certina when I shall be able to
leave. The more I think of all
that I have to do the more difficult it seems to get through it in time, but I
shall know better tomorrow evening. Anyway yuou will know by telegram before you get this whether I shall be
able to start on Wednesday or not
10
Aug The report you will be glad to
hear is very nearly finished and I
will have it quite done done this evening, if all goes well. Then tomorrow I must tackle those rocks
and register them, and at present I have no idea how long it will take to get
them done. La Touche
indicates he will investigate the purchase of a cradel, and thanks his wife for
anticipating the purchase of some beer "India Pale Ale sounds best. I suppose they have it in 2 gallon casks"
Calcutta
11 August 1897 Mss Eur C258 /63
My
own Darling Nancy,
The
report is finished at last, Hooray! and in Mr. O's hands. He
seemed to appreciate it very much. I then tackled my rocks and got in very well
with them . However they will be
off my hands tomorrow I hope and I am sure I will be able to start on Friday
evening. Only the day after
tomorrow …..
La
Touche joins his wife for the remainder of August and the start of
September. The letters start on
October on his next tour of field work: first from Delhi 14 Oct and then Ajmere
and Jodhpur and Bikaner.
C258/64