40 bulletin: museuivi of comparative zoology. 



which may be taken as Oh. lira, or about 29m. 10s. previous to the 

 calculated time of the Valparaiso shock at origin.^ 



According to Benndorf the secondary preliminary or transverse 

 group of seismic waves arrive at distances of 14,000 kms. after an 

 interval of 30m. ; according to Rizzo's later work, we may expect them 

 to arrive as early as 29m. 30s. after the primal shock, or after a mean 

 interval of 29m. 45s. ± 15s. It thus seems highly probable that the 

 Valparaiso shock was set off by the passage of the vibrations emanating 

 from an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands. ^ 



Voyage from Valparaiso to Panama, and thence to New York. On 

 the 7th of January 1909, I sailed from Valparaiso by the Chilean 

 steamship Limari for Panama, with stops at various port^ on the 

 intermediate coast. Along this coast as far north as the island of 

 San Gallan near Callao, from time to time one sees from the deck of a 

 passing vessel sea-caves somewhat above the present level of the sea, 

 indicating a modern uplift in relation to sea-level. Above these 

 recent indications of a change of level the embayments of the coast 

 are terraced as at Coquimbo and Ilo to a height of a few hundred feet. 

 Usually above the highest terrace which is somewhat more eroded and 

 creased by ravines than those successively lower, there rises a dissected 

 slope to the edge of the lofty plateau. That these terraces facing the 

 sea indicate changes of level one can hardl}' doubt. Were they due 

 to differential weathering the upper ones would be as sharply defined 

 as the lower terraces. In this respect the coast is in sharp contrast to 

 much of the region south of Valparaiso. We reached Panama January 

 26, where our fellow-passenger Colonel Gorgas of the Isthmian Canal 

 Commission showed us many courtesies. On January 27 I sailed by 

 the Royal Mail Steamship Nile for New York with a stop at Kingston, 

 Jamaica. This enabled me to spend a day in the examination of the 

 destructive work of the earthquake of January 14, 1907, the effects 

 of which were visible on every hand in the unfortunate city. The 

 Nile arrived at New York February 4th, 1909. 



J The initial Valparaiso sliock according to tlie results obtained at Laibach took 

 place at Oh. 40m. 5s. Cf. Galdino Negri. Velocidad de propagacion de las Ondas 

 Sismicas. Observatorio astronomica de la Universidad nacional de la Plata. Memoria 

 presentada al IV Congreso cientiflco internacional americano celebrado en Buenos 

 Aires del 10 al 25 de Julio de 1910. La Plata, 1911. p. 100. 



2 See in this connection, Quelques constantes sismiques trouvees par les macro- 

 sismes. Nota d'Eniilio Oddone da Roma. Strassburg, Bureau Central, 1907. 



