132 Mr. John Milne [March 20, 



nection with the destruction of San Francisco alone, we are told that 

 British insurance companies are called upon to meet claims amount- 

 ing to 12,000,000?., while losses of like character may have to be met 

 in other parts of the world. The Englishman living on his own little 

 patch of terra flrma is continually paying for earthquake effects all 

 over the world. The thinking man now realises that insurance rates 

 in many countries must vary with the seismicity of a district together 

 with the character of the structures to which they refer. Sub-oceanic 

 seismic activity frequently results in the failure of cables. It is there- 

 fore of extreme importance that the sites of these submarine disturb- 

 ances should be located (see map). In these and in many other ways 

 it is easy to show that England has probably a greater practical 

 interest in the results of seismological investigation than any other 

 country. Finance and earthquake eif ects are close relations. Another 

 incentive to the removal of apathy in regard to seismology lies in the 

 fact that the mind of the public like that of the individual becomes 

 fatigued by repetition. What is asked for is something new, and if 

 possible, it should be sensational. Newspapers and magazines do all 

 they can to relieve this craving, with the result that the public is 

 liberally supplied with stories about big catastrophes and deductions 

 based thereon. A new " liors cVmuvre " has been added to the daily 

 scientific menu, and the halfpenny paper and the sixpenny maga- 

 zines have given a stimulus to investigations bearing upon earth 

 physics. 



In countries where earthquakes have been severe and wliere by 

 their frequency they are continually forcing themselves upon public 

 attention, a desire to investigate is furnished by the earth itself. 

 Chili is now arranging to have a system of observing stations. 

 Jamaica is speaking about the same, whilst the United States are 

 extending what they now possess. Three recent earthquakes have 

 awakened three different Governments to the fact that, although 

 schoolmasters may not flog their children, nature is not always as 

 indulgent to its people. Japan, in addition to establishing stations 

 in Formosa, Saghalin, China and Korea, has already more than 1000 

 observing stations, 120 of which have instruments for recording local 

 shocks. For seismological investigations the government of that 

 country annually allocates 1000/. to 5000/., and this is outside expen- 

 diture in connection with the chair of seismology and concomitant 

 with investigations of earthquakes in foreign countries. During the 

 last 10 or 12 years Japan has issued about 70 quarto volumes bearing 

 upon seismological investigations. Russia has a series of well-equipped 

 stations within its borders. For very many years Italy has given 

 great attention to the movements of the ground. These are 

 recorded at several hundreds of stations, 160 of which are pro- 

 vided with instruments. Austria, Germany and many other States 

 are also devoting great attention particularly to the collection of 

 earthquake statistics, I fail, however, to see that these statistics, 



