On the 12th of June a disastrous earthquake occurred in North-Eastern India. The violence of the shock was first felt in Calcutta (at least, the first report of it reached us from that quarter), and spread with destructive violence, north-easterly through Assam along the valley of the Brahmapootra, and north-westerly along the course of the Ganges and the base of the Himalaya Mountains. We may form some idea of the violence of the shock from the disastrous effects produced by it. From Calcutta it is reported that few houses have escaped without damage of some description, that part of the Cathedral spire has fallen, and that many public buildings have been injured. At Darjeeling many houses were destroyed, and the district left without railway communication. In Bengal the destruction of property was apparently not so great; but in Assam the shock is reported to have spread ruin far and wide, and to have been attended with serious loss of human life.

The destructive energy of the earthquake appears to have been exhausted within the area thus briefly indicated. The undulatory movements set up by it in the earth's crust have, however, been detected at great distances from the centre of the disturbance, and already from three stations in Western Europe reports are to hand showing that seismographic apparatus have recorded the phenomenon beyond any possibility of doubt. These stations are Grenoble in South-Eastern France, Prof. Milne's Seismological Observatory in the Isle of Wight, and the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill. Doubtless in time we shall hear of similar records obtained at many other places.