Earthquake Waves on the Western Coast of the U. States. 37 
Within the “cold wall” minimum is a band of higher temper- 
ature crossing the Sandy Hook section, and generally well mark- 
ed, followed by a minimum which appears pretty well. deter- 
mined on the northern sections. - 
The limits of the chart show the limits of the Gulf Stream _ 
explorations up to the sammer of 1853, inclusive, the work being 
ill in progress. 
Arr. VII.—WNotice of Earthquake Waves on the Western Coast 
of the United States, on the 23d and 25th of December, 1854; 
by A. D, Bacue, Superintendent U.S. Coast Survey. 
(Communicated under authority of the Treasury Department, to the American Asso- 
: ciation for the Advancement of Science.) : 
__In February 1855, I received from Lieut. W. P. Trowbridge, 
of the Corps of Engineers, Assistant in the Coast Survey, in 
charge of the tidal observations on the Pacific coast, a letter call-_ 
ing my attention to the singular curves traced by the self-regis- 
tering tide-gauge at San Diego, on the 23d and 25th of Decem- 
ber, and remarking that the irregularities of the curve could not 
be produced by disturbances from storms, as the meteorological 
Tecords for the whole coast showed a continuance at that time of 
an ordinary state of weather, and the length of the wave was 
too great to be explained by such action. 
“There is every reason to presume,” he continues, “that the 
effect was caused by a submarine earthquake.” No shock how- 
ever has been felt at San Francisco. 
hen the record sheet of the self-registering gauge at San 
Francisco was received, similar irregularities in the curves for the 
Same days were found upon it. The sheet for Astoria presented 
little or no special irregularity. ‘These were the only self-regis- 
tering gauges actually in operation at this tifne. af 
aves of short period would of course escape detection by 
the ordinary hourly or half-hourly observations. 
About the 20th of June, we received accounts from Japan of 
a'violent earthquake on the 23d of December, the notice of which 
was more circumstantial than usual, from the damage to the Rus- 
sian Frigate Diana, in the port of Simoda, in the island of Ni- 
on, from the excessive and rapid rise and fall of the water. 
A detailed account of the phenomena of this earthquake and 
of the rise and fall of the sea produced by it in different places 
on. oe coast of the Pacific, is _— bs be sore, ane : res 
Ought that by the publication of the results obtained by the . 
Coast Survey, the pabhiestion of official reports of the phenomena - 
