CLIMATE. 41 



of the shocks are so sliglit as to pass unnoticed by a great 

 majority of the people; and there are j^erj-ous who have i-e- 

 sided six or eight years in San Francisco, and many wlio have 

 resided ten years in other parts of the state, and say they have 

 never felt an earthquake. No person has been hurt, nor has 

 any strongly-built house been injured, by an earthquake in 

 California, north of latitude 35°, since the American conquest. 

 Several brick walls have been cracked in San Francisco, but 

 they were weak structures, built on "made ground," and 

 would perhaps have cracked by settling, of their own weight. 

 On three or four occasions, large four-story houses have been 

 so much shaken, that the inmates have run out in great alarm ; 

 but on examination it was found that the buildings were unin- 

 jured, even in the slightest perceptible manner. 



On one such occasion, a friend of mine, who thought his life 

 in great danger, and ran to save it, observed before he left his 

 room that the water was splashed out of his basin by the 

 movement of the house. The basin was of earthen ware, about 

 fifteen inches in diameter at the top, six inches deep, half full 

 of water, and it stood on an ordinary wash-stand. He sup- 

 posed that, with another such a shock or two, the building 

 must be in ruins ; and he was very much astonished the next 

 morning to find that there was not the slightest crack in the 

 plastering. His room was in the fourth story of a biick hotel. 

 It seems that the whole building had moved together. 



The fear of earthquakes prevents the erection of high struc- 

 tures for show ; and, for this reason, there is not a tall steeple 

 in San Francisco. The largest churches have been commenced 

 on such a plan that they might be crowned with lofty spires, 

 but it was thought more prudent to leave them with low tow- 

 ers. The same motive induces many wealthy families to reside 

 in wooden houses, which are considered better fitted to resist 

 the shocks of earthquakes. These wooden houses, it must be 

 kept in mind, are not "framed" with mortices and tenons, as 

 large wooden houses are usually erected in the Atlantic states, 

 but are "Cliicago frames," held together with nails. This 

 3* 



