o|ß B. 7C0TÖ : CAUSE OF THE GTIEAT 



quake. A sliock was feit inudi :il)out the s;iino time at Truro, South 

 vVustralin. A iearfiil oarth<|Hako also shook tlic o]>])osito coasts of 

 the Sea of Maniiora ; on the 2(Sth of Fel)ruar\^, and in July of tlie 

 same year, a smart shock traNcrsed piirts of Switzerland, Lomljardy, 

 and the south of France. 



In the first year of Ansei (1854), the wliole of Southern diq^nn, 

 especially the Island of Shikoku, was visited hy terril)le suhterranean 

 convulsions. The earth(|uake-]>ei'iod was a l(^nn' one. In the next 

 year, tlie centre of the suljterranean activity shifted more to the 

 east, and in the greater part of the ]\[ain Island, particularly over 

 the districts around the '"excellent and singular" volcano of Fuji, 

 towns arid villages were reduced to heaps of ruins hy most des- 

 tructive earth(piakes. Great as were the effects of the earth-con- 

 vulsions îit that time, the later catastrophe of Octoher. l<Si)l, seems 

 to ha\e heen far the more dreadful in intensity as regards ]\rino 

 and Owari, judging from the destructive effects of the disturhan^'e, 

 and the statements of peo])le who survived the event of the Ansei 

 period. 



The j\[ino-Owari plain (OS srpiare ri) is one of Japan's great 

 gardens, covered with ri<'e fields and d(^tted with dumps of ti-ees 

 and with liandets ; rising from it on the north and south may he 

 seen the castles of Xagoya and Ögaki. This fiat supports a popula- 

 tion of perhaps 4,G8() ])er s<piare ri, or 004 to every square kilo- 

 metre, and is therefore the most densely ])eopled region in this 

 country, exce])t Sanuki in the Island of Sliikoku. Tlie meiso- 

 seismic area includes all this ])lain and the mountainous district 

 of Mino and Echizen. J>y the disturhance which occurred in this 

 portion of the F]mpire in Octoher, iSOl, the land liecame at once 

 a sea of waves, with movements greatly magnified on tlie soft 

 alluvial plain. As this lay near the origin of the disturhance, the 



