56 NINTH REPORT. 



upon the interesting problems which earthquakes offer for solution, and my 

 story has already developed a likeness to the oldtime novel with its pro- 

 longation of agony into the third volume. I must not forget that even the 

 "three-decker" has an end, and in Kipling's words: 



"She dwindles to a speck, 

 With noise of pleasant music and dancing on her deck." 



If the denouement has been harrowing and you have been shocked by dis- 

 illusionment concerning the security of mother earth; if it is unpleasant to 

 contemplate some of our great cities quite unprepared in the grip of a devas- 

 tating earthquake, I can at least offer the assurance learned of our mothers in 

 childhood, that the medicine is for our good. I have observed, too, that 

 dangers which impend often seem less terrible when they threaten us not so 

 nuich as they do our friends — and especially our more distant ones. I can 

 offer no earthquake insurance, and it is much easier as well as much better 

 for one's reputation, to predict where earthquakes ivill strike than where 

 they will not; but it may help you to a restful night, if as a parting word I 

 say that the state of Michigan, as regards earthquakes, is apparently much 

 more secure than either the Pacific or the Atlantic slopes, the Lower Valley 

 of the St. Lawrence, or the Lower Mississippi. 



University of Michigan. 



