480 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



were deprived of value by the uncertainty of time at the origin in An- 

 dalusia. {Xature, xxxi: 491.) 



0. W. C. Fuchs, in his twentieth annual report {Min. u. Petrog. Mittheil., 

 1885) notes the dearth of volcanic phenomena in 1884, there being noth- 

 ing worthy of mention except the slight activity of Vesuvius and Etna, 

 and of St. Augustin in Alaska, which are all disposed of in a single 

 page, and then describes the earthquakes of the year. His report men- 

 tions 123 shocks, distributed in time as follows: winter, 57 (December, 

 19; January, 28; February, 10); spring, 24 (March 13; April, 7; May, 4); 

 summer, 21 (June, 5; July, 9; August, 7); autumn, 21 (September, 8; 

 October, 1 ; Kovember, 12). On fourteen days two or more places were 

 affected, and twelve localities were shaken on two or more dates. This 

 report mentions only four American earthquakes (March 25, August 10, 

 September 18, 20), Professor Eockwood's report for the year not having 

 been received by Dr. Fuchs before this was printed. Those earthquakes 

 deserving individual mention are: March 24, 1884, in Upper and Cen- 

 tral Slavonia, where, in Diakovarand other places, numerous buildings 

 suffered injury ; April 22, in England; May 13, in Crevassa, where a 

 church and other buildings were destroyed ; May 19, on the Persian 

 Gulf, in whi(jh 200 persons fell victims by the overthrow of their houses ; 

 August 10, in the Eastern United States ; and the Spanish earthquakes 

 in December. In regard to the earthquakes in Spain, Dr. Fuchs dis- 

 cusses at some length their relation to the geological structure of the 

 Peninsula, concluding that the centrum was not a point, but a line par- 

 allel to the Sierras Tejeda and Almijara. He differs from those writers 

 who call these earthquakes the most important in Europe, thinking that 

 of the earthquakes which have occurred during the last ten years, those 

 of Belluno, 1873, of Agram, 1880, and of Chios, 1881, are of equal im- 

 portance. An appendix mentions Verbeek's book on Krakatoa, and 

 adds to his own previous reports 170 earthquake dates, 80 for 1882, 90 

 for 1883. These, however, do not indicate so many hitherto unreported 

 earthquakes, as many of them refer to continuous series of light shak- 

 ings, and others give additional details regarding earthquakes already 

 mentioned in his reports for those years. 



In his Fourteenth Notes on American Earthquakes {Am. Jour. Sci., 

 XXIX: 425), Professor Eockwood has collected the records of earthquakes 

 for 1884. The list contains 54 items, classified geographically as follows: 

 Canadian Provinces, 5; New England, 9; Atlantic States, 5; Missis- 

 sippi Valley, 7; Pacific^ Coast, 21; West Indies, 2; Central America and 

 Colombia, 3; Peru, 2; Uruguay, 1. By seasons they were: winter, 12 

 (December, 2; Jannary,8; February, 2); spring, 15 (March, 8; April, 7; 

 May,0); summer, 8 (June, 4: July, 0; August, 4); autumn, 19 (Septem- 

 ber, 4; October, 5; November, 10); spring and summer together, 23; 

 autumn and winter together, 31. Most of the shocks were light. The only 

 ones of destructive importance were : November 5 and 0, on the Isthmus 

 of Panama and in Colombia, when the damages were estimated from 



