March 



iSS;] 



NATURE 



421 



a series of shocks began at five minutes after six (Cannes 

 time). "No premonitory warning was given, and there 

 was none of that rumbling noise which frequently accom- 

 panies earthquakes. The sky was without a cloud, and 

 the first ' rose of dawn ' had just begun to show itself in 

 the east. The air was still and fresh, and not a leaf stirred 

 on mimosa or eucalyptus. The trembling, beginning some- 

 what gently at first, like that produced by the passage of a 

 heavy railway train, grew rapidly more and more marked. 

 . . . The convulsion lasted for fully a minute, and 

 the oscillation was from east to west. A second but 

 slight shock, some minutes afterwards, did not tend to 

 diminish the apprehension caused by the first. So far as 

 I can learn, few of the thousands who fill the hotels 

 remained in their rooms, the great majority finding their 

 way, some in the scantiest of raiment, into the adjoining 

 gardens. The first alarm was beginning to pass off 

 when, about half-past eight, a third shock was felt. This 

 did not last above fifteen seconds, but while it lasted it 

 was very severe, shaking the floors and moving the fur- 

 niture in the same way, but in a less degree than the first 

 shock. The air continued calm as before, and the whole 

 sky was flooded with sunshine." 



It will be observed that Sir Theodore Martin describes 

 the direction of the oscillation at Cannes as from east to 

 west. Another correspondent of the Times says that at 

 Antibes the undulations were " undoubtedly from west to 

 east." At Toulon, where there were two violent shocks 

 about six o'clock, the undulations were also from west to 

 east. On the other hand, at Turin, where there were 

 three shocks in the space of seventeen seconds, the 

 second shock, which was by far the strongest, had a 

 direction from north-east to south-we:.t. 



At Marseilles two smart shocks were felt about 6 a.m., 

 and a third at S.30 a.m. They lasted about fifteen 

 seconds each, and caused fissures in several houses. At 

 Nimes some windows were shattered, and the clocks 

 stopped ; and like results were produced at Gienoble. At 

 Avignon three shocks were felt between 6 and 8 o'clock 

 a.m., and the first shock was violent enough to awake all 

 the inhabitants. Slight shocks were felt at Lyons. 



It was in the towns and villages of the Italian Riviera 

 that the earthquake produced its most desolating effects. 

 Diano Marina was utterly destroyed. At the first shock, 

 about 6 o'clock, the inhabitants of this place rushed into the 

 streets half dressed. Then came a more fearful shock. A 

 frightful cracking noise was heard as far as the beach, 

 and the houses fell in, burying the greater number of those 

 who had lived in them. The results at Diano Castello, a 

 mile and a half off, were also very appalling, and at 

 Bajardo more than 200 persons were killed in the church. 

 The full extent of the calamity which so suddenly over- 

 took these and other places in the same district cannot 

 even yet be accurately determined. The following is the 

 official list of dead and wounded: — .Alassio, 3 dead, 8 

 wounded; Albenga, 30 wounded; .Albissola, 3 dead, 12 

 wounded ; Bajardo, 230 dead, 30 wounded ; Bussano, 80 

 dead, 27 wounded ; Castellaro, 41 dead, 65 wounded ; 

 Ceriana, 5 dead, 12 wounded; Diano Castello, 35 dead, 

 10 wounded; Diano Marina, 180 dead, 65 wounded; 

 Montalto Ligure, i dead, 3 wounded; Noli, 16 dead, 12 

 wounded ; Oneglia, 23 dead, about 150 wounded ; Pom- 

 peiana, ; dead, 7 wounded ; Porto Maurizio, i dead, 10 

 wounded ; Savona, 1 1 dead ; Taggia, 8 dead, 14 wounded ; 

 Triora, 4 dead, 9 wounded. 



All over Switzerland the earthquake was felt, more or 

 less, and the oscillations are said to have been from north 

 to south. Dr. A. Riggenbach, Assistant Astronomer at 

 the Basle Observator)', writes to us that some shocks 

 occurred there. The two clocks of the Basle Observa- 

 torj-, and the two regulators of the public electric dials, 

 the principal astronomical clock of Knoblich, keeping 

 sidereal time, were stopped at 6h. 42m. 50s. a.m. local 

 mean time, or jh. 34m. 30s. a.m. Greenwich mean time. 



Mr. G. M. Whipple, Superintendent of the Kew Obser- 

 vatory, has been good enough to send us a carefu' 

 tracing, which we reproduce, of the curve given 

 by the bifilar magnetograph at the Kew Observa- 

 tory, showing that the instrument was aftected by the 

 earthquake about 5.40 a.m. Indications of the'later 

 shocks were shown on the original photograph, but not 

 with sufficient clearness to enable them to be satisfactorily 



Copy of trace of bifilar magnetograph at the Kew Ohservatory, Richmond. 

 Surrey, 18B7, February 23, 5-7 a.m. Movement produced by earthquake 

 marked E. 



identified. In the Signal Office at Washington, the 

 Government seismoscope was, on Wednesday morning, 

 disturbed by accurately recorded shocks at 7.33 a.m. 

 This is equivalent to 7.50 a.m. by the standard time of 

 the 75th meridian. If, therefore, these shocks were con- 

 nected with the earthquakes in Southern Europe, the 

 velocity of their transmission from the Riviera was about 

 500 miles an hour. 



The problems connected with the earthquake were dis- 

 cussed at the meeting of the French Academy of Sciences 

 on Monday. M. Mascart stated the contents of a note 

 from M. Fines, of Perpignan, who possesses a magneto- 

 meter. A little before the shock his magnetic instru- 

 ments were shaken by a peculiar jolting motion. At 5.45 

 a.m. the magnetic registering instruments at the Observa- 

 tory in the Pare de St. Maur, near Paris, exhibited the 

 same motions. At the Lyons Observatory similar vibra- 

 tions were observed at 5.55. M. Mascart remarked that 

 these movements were simultaneous. It was not, there- 

 fore, an oscillatory movement passing from one point to 

 another with which they had to deal, but a phenomenon 

 which affected a large space simultaneously. He sup- 

 posed there had been an electric current which had actec 

 on all the instruments placed within its sphere of action. 

 The form of the cur\-es recorded was very distinct from 

 those given by magnetic instruments when affected by 

 storms or auroras. M. Mascart suggested that means 

 might yet be found of predicting the approach of a 

 seismic storm. He added that if the cause of the effects 

 that had been observed was an electric flux, it was easy 

 to understand why their intensity was everywhere nearly 

 the same. A commission was appointed to examine 

 documents which may be transmitted with reference to 

 the earthquakes. 



NOTES 

 A CIRCULAR to Great Britain and the other European States, 

 and to the United States, has been forwarded by the Executive 

 Commissioners of the Melbourne Centennial International 

 Exhibition. The Exhibition will be opened on August I, 1888, 

 in order to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the colony 

 of New South Wales, and will remain open for six months. 

 The Commission invites the British, foreign, and colonial 

 Governments to participate in the undertaking, and trusts that 

 steps will promptly be taken by them for the completest possible 

 representative display. It is pointed out that the population of 

 Australasia is 3,500,000, that the imports of British goods annu- 

 ally amount in value to 32,000,000/., and that 7700 miles of rail- 



