NOTES OX JAPANESE EARTHQUAKES. 417 



Hida, Kotsuke, Shiribeslii, Hitnlvn, Tokaclii and Kitami; and bet- 

 ween two îind five occurred in the remaining forty-six provinces. 



19. The area of earthquake disturbance. Let ns for the 

 sake of convenience distinguish destructive earthquakes, according 

 to the magnitude ot the area of disturbance, into two kinds, 

 namely, local earthquakes, in wliicli the area of destructive 

 motion was confined to only one province, and non-local earth- 

 quakes, in which the area extended over several provinces. 

 According to this convention, the 222 destructive earthquakes 

 contained in Table I may be divided into 149 local and 7o 

 non-local ones, the ratio of these two numbers being as 2:1. 

 Further, from examination of Table I, it will be seen that 

 the provinces of Osumi, F^atsuma, Higo, Hizen, Chikuzen, Tsu- 

 shima, Iwami, Izumo, Kaga, Noto, Sado, Echigo, Shinano, 

 Shimotsuke, Iwashiro, Uzen, Ugo, Ishikari and Teshiwo were 

 generally disturbed l)y local shocks, non-local ones originating, 

 with the exceptions of Shinano and Echigo, very rarely in these 

 districts. On the other hand, Hiuga, Bungo, Tosa, Kii, Mino, and 

 the provinces of Kinai and Tokaido were often disturbed by great 

 non-local shocks, whose origins were generally situated off the 

 eastern coast of Japai], and which were pi'obably caused by faults 

 formed parallel to the latter. 



The three north-eastern provinces of Rikuzen, Rikuchu 

 and Nemuro were often disturbed by great earthquakes of sub- 

 oceanic origins. The areas of destructive motion in these cases 

 seems never to have extended to the south of Hitachi and the 

 Peninsula of Kazusa and Awa. Now, as is well known, the 

 group of the Japanese islands forms an arc, whose concavity is 

 turned towards the Japan Sea, and the general geographical dis- 

 tribution of destructive earthquakes in Japan may be summarised 



