12 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
and discussion, especially in Europe, during the last five years. The 
topic being one of vast importance in general geology aiso, it was 
decided to make it the subject of special study during the summer of 
1907, and Mr. Bailey Willis, a geologist prepared for the work by 
previous experience and training, was detailed for the purpose, under 
a grant from the Institution. 
It is hoped that this investigation, the results of which will be 
issued in one of the Smithsonian publications, will aid in solving 
questions of great importance in general geology. 
SEISMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS. 
The great earthquake at San Francisco brought prominently to the 
attention of scientific men and establishments the importance of 
seismological study, and when on August 16, 1906, the earthquake in 
Chile took place, it seemed desirable that a competent investigator 
should be sent to that country to make a study on the spot in order 
that the disturbance in Chile might be compared with that in Cali- 
fornia, and utilized for the furtherance of knowledge of this im- 
portant subject. 
Through the courtesy of the Department of State cable communica- 
tion was had with the American minister in Chile, and it was ascer- 
tained that the Government of Chile had appointed a commission 
consisting of competent astronomers and geologists and that there 
was no need of sending an observer from the Institution. The 
American minister in Chile and Mr. Heber D. Curtis, of the Lick 
Observatory Station, at Santiago, kept the Institution informed as 
to the progress of the investigation. In general it seems to be de- 
termined that there had been some elevation of the coast of Chile and 
that on the other hand there had been found no traces of a rift such 
as caused the earthquake at San Francisco. Brief abstracts from the 
communications received have been published from time to time in 
the Smithsonian Quarterly. 
Meanwhile the importance of seismological investigation, both 
national and international, has received attention, and plans have been 
considered for establishing stations in this country, but the Institu- 
tion is without funds to further the object, and attempts to secure 
special means or endowment for the purpose have as yet not met 
with satisfactory results. 
In connection with this subject it should be said that the frequent 
reports of observations of earthquakes at sea which reach the Hydro- 
graphic Office of the Navy Department are, through the courtesy of 
that Department, regularly transmitted to the Institution and are 
made known to students interested in this subject with the hope that 
all the data when correlated may prove of advantage in the study of 
these great destructive phenomena. 
