146 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



line — leads to that conclusion. Time is an important element in aiding us to 

 form corrrect conclusions regarding these phenomena, and it is to be hoped that 

 our friends in different parts of the State, in reporting the same, will be precise 

 in this particular. Of the incidents attending the shocks, many and varied 

 reports have reached us ; it seems to have acted with greater violence in the 

 vicinity of the Tejon Reserve and upper Tulare County than at any other place. 

 It is most remarkable that so small an amount of intensity of force was mani- 

 fested when the area over which it extended is taken into consideration. 



The effects were felt in San Francisco several hours before they are reported 

 to have been observed at any other place north or south. They begau here at 

 twenty minutes past eleven, on the night of the eighth, and continued till thirteen 

 minutes past eight the following morning — six shocks occurring in the interval ; 

 while to the south, the first shock noticed at the Tejon, was at six hours 

 thirty minutes, on the ninth. In Los Angeles they continued at long in- 

 tervals through the day until twenty-three hours thirty minutes of the same 

 date. I have learned from persons who were present in Los Angeles at this 

 time, and also at the shock of the fourteenth July, 1855, that the severity of the 

 latter exceeded that of the ninth January last past. 



1857. 



During the past year there has been rather a frequency in the occurrence of 

 the phenomena of earthquakes ; and, with the exception of two, there have been 

 none that were particularly remarkable either for extent of surface affected or 

 severity of action. In one, that of the ninth of January, the greatest extent of 

 surface, and greatest intensity of action was manifest. Its principal force seems 

 to have been expended in the more southerly portions of our State, and iu the 

 immediate vicinity of those volcanic (?) vents found at different localities upon the 

 Colorado Desert. It is manifest, however, that this shock and those which pre- 

 ceded it on the night of the eighth, had their origin to the west of our coast, as 

 the times of occurrence of the shock at different localities most fully prove. 

 This matter was fully discussed in my previous paper, " On the direction and 

 velocity of the earthquake of January 9th, 1857," read before this Society 

 March 30th, which will be found in their proceedings. 



The other shock of greatest extent, on the second of September, extended 

 over an area of about two hundred miles, but was marked by no particular 

 severity or injury, except that of fright to those who experienced it. 



The whole number that can be authenticated as occurring during 1857, 

 amounts to seventeen, being greater than the number recorded in 1853 and 

 1856 ; and it would seem probable from our records that this number is the 

 maximum to which we shall probably be subjected in this State. 



From the Sandwich Islands we have no news of earthquakes save one, which 

 is here inserted : " A very severe shock of earthquake was felt at Kawaihae, 

 Hawaii, on the twenty-fourth of February, the most severe that the residents 

 there have had for many years." 



The arrival of the whaling fleet from the Northern seas brings no intelligence 

 of the occurrence of these phenomena, as was the case of the preceding year ; 



