o9g TJ. KOl'ö: CAUSE OF THE GREAT 



and more fre({neiitly seen. Indeed in tlie npper dale it may be 

 said that the greater part of the mountain slopes had slipped away, 

 carrying' with them tlie forest they were covered with. 



Amongst the extraordinary things done l)y the earthcjuake, one 

 that always drew my attention was the earth-rent. It strikes 

 across hills and p:iddy-fields ahke, cutting up the soft earth into 

 enormous clols ;iiid raising them above the surface. It resenihles 

 the pallucai/ of a gigantic vide more than ütiijt]iing ehe (PI. XXXA .) 

 Indeed it is known by this appellation among the villagers. An old 

 Japanese superstition about earthquakes is that a monstrous cat-fish 

 lives underne-ith the Empire of Japan, and whenever this fish moves 

 there is an earthcjuake. The origin of this belief is not known, but 

 no doubt it has undergone several changes or modifications since it 

 was first originated. A representation of it was given as a drawing 

 in an almanac of the eleventh century. There it was de])icted 

 as the eartli quake- insect — a wonderful flat creature witli numerous 

 appendages and a head like a dragon, carrying on its back a map 

 of Japan. Tlie earth-yent which has cenj much tlie appearance of the 

 track of a mole, as just stated, stro)tghj reminded nie of tlie faticij of the 

 eartliqiiake-insect. It is prohahle that the belief of the earthquake-insect 

 as the aullior of subterranean convulsions maif hare arisen from the 

 outu-ard aspect of the fssure, produced hij a tectonic eartliguake as in 

 the case of the Neo xalleij. 



The formation of crevices is the never-failing attendant pheno- 

 menon in violent earthquakes ; but the one in question is not of a 

 common sort, lîeing interested in this remarkable earth-rent I have 

 actuallv traced it for more than forty miles. It starts from about 

 the village of Katabira, not f;n- from Katsuyama, on the bank of the 

 Kiso-gawa on the Xakasendo, running north-westwards up to Fukui 

 in Echizen through the Neo valley (PI. XXIX.). Although the 



