390 F. OMOKi : 



the ground moved more or less sharply without producing 

 any damage. For the sake of making the Catalogue more 

 definite I have classified the earthquakes contained in it into 

 the following three kinds, according to the intensity of their 

 motion : 



Great or destructive earthquakes, in which the ground was 

 cracked, buildings greatly damaged, lives lost, etc.; 



Strong earthquakes, m which the motion was sufiiciently 

 sharp to cause people to run out of doors and to produce slight 

 damage, such as the overthrowing of furnitures, small cracks 

 in walls and ishigahi (masonry walls), embankments, etc.; 



Small or slight earthquakes, in which the motion was weak 

 and which caused neither alarm nor damage. 



It may here be remarked that the relation between the ab- 

 solute intensity of the earthquake motion and the amount of 

 damage produced would not necessarily be the same in different 

 countries. Thus, the houses in Japan are mostly constructed 

 of wood and resist earthquake shocks much better than build- 

 ings in European cities which are often high and constructed of 

 stone or brick, generally without any precautions being taken 

 against earthquakes. An earthquake classed as strong in the 

 Catalogue, might therefore have produced considerable damage, 

 had it affected an European city. 



II. Number of Destructive Earthquakes in Japan. 



3. It is no easy matter to classify earthquakes accurately 

 according to the scale in § 2, since some of the old earthquake 

 records are too simple and make no reference to the intensity 

 of motion or to the area of disturbance. In recognising which 



