NA TURE 



[March 4, 1909 



ceremonies, such as the rain-making- ceremony, the 

 two are mixed up together. 



Magical practices are in use among the natives to 

 control the elements, to control vegetable life, to 

 control animal life, and to control human beings. 

 From this it may be inferred how important is the 

 part that magic plays in the daily life of the native. 

 To produce a good harvest, each plant or fruit has 

 a special charm and ceremony. But magic may also 

 be harmful, and is often used to injure an enemy or 

 his property. 



Religion, in the Murray Islands, appears to be 

 chiefly represented by one important cult, known as 

 the Bomai-Malu cult. K very strict secrecv is main- 

 tained about the ceremonies of this cult, but the 



•..—.\ phase of th 



mi vol. vi. of the Rep. 



e of the Bomai-Malu : 

 nbridge Expedition to 



authors appear to have succeeded in discovering every- 

 thing of importance. The origin and nature of the 

 ceremonies, their places and times, the participants, 

 the ritual decoration, and ritual objects are all de- 

 scribed at great length. The cult appears to have 

 developed into a secret society or religious fraternity 

 \\hich has taken upon itself disciplinary functions. 

 The cult includes initiation ceremonies for the young 

 men, at which apparently some very good advice is 

 given to the initiate. 



There are a large number of valuable illustrations 

 in the volume, including many figures in the text, and 

 some thirty plates at the end! The work is produced 

 in a manner which is highly creditable to the Uni- 

 versity Press. 



NO. 2053, VOL, 80] 



THE CALIFORNIAN EARTHQUAKE OF 1906." 



AX/E owe so much to the activity of the institution 

 * ' founded at Washington by the generosity of 

 Mr. Carnegie that it seems ungracious to find any 

 fault, yet we must enter a plaint against the incon- 

 venience of the form of publication which it has 

 adopted. The instalment of the report on the Cali- 

 fornia earthquake of .\pril i8, 1906, now published, 

 consists of two quarto volumes, of more than 450 pages 

 in all, issued in paper covers, accompanied by an 

 atlas which measures two feet in length and more 

 than half a yard in breadth, a size which renders its 

 accommodation in the libraries of most of those who 

 will want to possess and use it a matter of great 

 inconvenience, and necessitates its being stored and 

 kept apart from the volumes which it accompanies. 

 Yet this atlas might easily have been produced in a 

 size that would match the text, for few of the twenty- 

 five maps fill the whole of the sheets on which they 

 are printed, and there are none which might not have 

 been reduced in scale without any loss, and even in 

 some cases with advantage; while those seismograms 

 which could not be reproduced on a page of the same 

 size as the text could have been folded, as is done by 

 the Japanese Earthquake Investigation Committee, 

 without any inconvenience. 



Having given vent to this fault-finding we may turn 

 to more congenial topics, and express our admiration 

 of the thoroughness and completeness with which 

 this important earthquake has been investigated and 

 described. After a brief account of the geology of 

 the region, we have a detailed account of that re- 

 markable structural and topographical feature called 

 the San ."Xndreas Rift, which was closely associated 

 with the earthquake. This rift follows a line of fault- 

 ing, but appears to be the result of a different set of 

 movements from those which produced the great up- 

 and-down throw ; for 600 miles, from Humboldt county, 

 on the Pacific coast, to the Colorado Desert, it is marked 

 bv a narrow zone of depression, referable either 

 directly to recent deformation of the ground or to 

 erosion controlled by the lines along which this de- 

 formation has taken place. Though associated with 

 faulting, often of great throw, as between opposite 

 sides, the rift itself is a narrow strip containing a 

 number of minor faults and fractures, running more 

 or less in the same general direction, and dividing 

 the ground Into blocks of unequal size, which have 

 sunk uneauallv between the margins of the rift. 

 Throughout its length it is marked by steep scarps, 

 generally of small height, ponds, and irregularities 

 in the drainage lines which proclaim it as a region 

 where earth-movement is recent or still in progress ; 

 and the greater earthquakes of the district are so 

 commonly accompanied by movement along the rift 

 that it has acquired the local name of " earthquake 

 crack." In iqo6 the movement was confined to about 

 190 miles at the northern end of the rift line, and, 

 as revealed at the surface, appeared in different forms; 

 at times there was but a single fissure, hardly dis- 

 cernible except by its effect in breaking and displacing 

 roads and fences, at others there were several roughly 

 parallel faults, and again, where the rock was covered 

 by surface accumulations or alluvium, there was a 

 series of fissures running obliquely, but arranged in 



3 "The California Earthquake of April t8, iqo6." Report of the State 

 Earthquake Investigation Commission." Bv Andrew C. Lawson. Chairman, 

 in rollahoralion with G. K. Gilbert, H. F.Reid, J. C. Branner, H. W. Fair- 

 hanks, H. O. Wood, J. F. Havford, A. L. Baldwin, F. Omori. A. O. 

 Leu^chner, George Davidson, F. E, Matthes, R. Anderson, G, D. Louder- 

 back, R. S, Holway, A, S, Eakle, R. Crandall, G. F. Hoffman, G. A, 

 Wan ins, E, Huf;hes, F, J. Rogers, A. Baird, and many others. 2 vols. 

 Pp. xviii + 45T : 146 platts, 66 ilhislrations in text : atlas of 25 maps and 

 15 sheets of .seismograms. (Washington: Carnegie Institution, 1908.) 



