,336 li' K"OTÖ: PAUSE OF THE GREAT 



the Tobu-o-;iwa lost tlieir outlet, and tlie viIlao;es of Nislii- and Miofashi- 

 Fukase, comprising an area of 2 square kilometres, or nearly 220 

 chO, were transformed into a deep swamp in consequence (compare 

 the annexed sketch map). When I was tliere last autumn, the 

 farmers were oblig-ed to cut the g-niin in boats, October beino- 

 the month of the rice liarvest. It was very remarkable to 

 see that a o-roup of farmers' cottag^es, standino- at the northern border 

 of the newly created swamp, had miraculously escaped the collapse, 

 though scarcely 2 kilometres north of Takatomi, a phenomenon 

 due perhaps to the foct that tlie place is just 1)ehind a low hill 

 which seems to have absorbed the wave motion of the earth- 

 quake on its way. The earthquake-shadow so created, finds analogy 

 ill the action of a strongly blowing wind, cut short by a liill in its 

 path, leaving the other side in the wind-shadow. It is almost beyond 

 doubt now that the destructi\e motion of an earthquake depends 

 like that c^f the wind, more upon the topography of the shaken district 

 than upon the angle of emergence of waves froin an assumed origin 

 within the earth's crust. I rould easily multiply such examples of 

 the eirthquake-shadow l)etween 'J'akatomi and Omori along the great 

 fault. Houses between or near side-valleys generally escaped the 

 destruction, wliile those on the plain through which the line passes, 

 could not withstand the shock and were thrown down. 



The great fault-line crosses Toba, where the houses were crushed 

 to rubbish, and proceeds directly westwards to Horachi. In the latter 

 ])lace again the north side sulisided and became part of the new 

 swamp, already referred to. The line enters a hill at J\[ochi-nari, cuts 

 through a spur of hill at Azuki-zaka, and then i<)llows the northern 

 foot of the hills westwards. It appeared for some time after on 

 the surface through the whole region, exactly like the track of an 

 enormous mole. 



