Septkmijkr io, 1896] 



NA TURE 



449 



Pickering telegraphs, also on September I, from Cambridge, 

 Mass.. to the following effect: "Bailey at Arequipa finds / 

 Scorpii spectroscopic binary'. Period 3Sh." 



The Pleiades. — Some time ago, we gave an account of 

 several legends and myths connected with that most interesting 

 cluster of stars, the Pleiades. These myths were, for the most 

 part, gathered from an article which appeared in Globus {Bd. 

 64, p. 362). It seems, however, that our stock is by no means 

 complete, for Dr. Heinrich Samter, in the current number 

 (Bd. 70, p. 176) adds considerably to it. We make this 

 reference for those readers who take a special interest in folk- 

 lore, and would wish to look up this article. 



Meteors traxsiti-ng the Solar and Lunar Discs. — 

 What apparently appear to be unique observations, recorded 

 quite recently in America, are given in the current number of 

 the J\ivue Scientiji,/ue. It seems that during the night of 

 July 21 and 22 last, Mr. William Brooks, the director of 

 the Smith Observatory at Geneva (New York), saw all at once 

 a round dark body pass slowly before the bright disc of the 

 moon, the latter being almost full. The apparent diameter of 

 the body is given as about one minute, and the duration of its 

 transit amounted to three or four seconds, its direction being 

 from the east towards the west. The second observation was 

 made about midday on August 22, by Mr. Gathmann, an 

 American astronomer, but the place of observation is not stated. 

 He saw a meteor pass before the solar disc, occupying a period 

 of time amounting to eight seconds in its transit. It is sug- 

 gested that this body is one of a great number which circulates 

 round our planet ; it does not seem at all necessary to assume 

 that our earth is the centre of attraction, indeed it seems rather 

 improbable, as the observation would then, no doubt, be more 

 common. Our present idea of space is that it is a meteoritic 

 plenum, and full of bodies traversing through it at various 

 speeds and at various distances from us, so that the chances of 

 making such an observation, especially at periods of shooting- 

 stars, is not altogether impossible, but is likely to occur, provided 

 the observer is fortunate and happens to watch a comparatively 

 slow-moving meteor. 



THE GREAT SEISMIC WAVE OF JAPAN. 

 "pL'LL particulars of the terrible wave which devastated the 

 cuast of Japan last June, causing the destruction of 

 20,000 lives and 12,000 houses and other buildings, have recently 

 been given in the daily papers. The official report made to 

 the Jajjanese Government having now reached this country, it 

 may be interesting shortly to summarise the particulars of this 

 occurrence, and to give the causes which have been assigned 

 for its creation ; and also to refer to waves of a similar character 

 that have occurred on former occasions and in other localities. 



The wave appears to have originated at a short distance 

 from that part of the coast of Japan which trends in a north- 

 easterly direction from the northern part of Sendai, midway 

 between Tokio and the island of Yezo or Hokkaido. From 

 Kiukasan, the northern island of the Archipelago, the coast is 

 Ijord-like in character, abrupt mountain ridges running down 

 almost to the water edge. In the bays and estuaries that 

 interrupt the shore line several important towns and many fish- 

 ing villages were situated ; with a few exceptions these have 

 all been destroyed. The distance over which the effect was felt 

 has been variously given as extending over a length of coast of 

 from 200 to 300 miles. 



Suddenly, almost without warning, between eight and nine 

 o'clock in the evening of the 15th, three successive waves, 

 the highest estimated as being fifty feet in height, swept 

 over the land bordering on the coast, and in a space of a few 

 minutes had caused a frightful devastation of property and the 

 death of nearly all the inhabitants. There was nothing to pre- 

 sage the disaster or give warning. The barometer gave no 

 indication of anything abnormal in the atmosphere. About 

 half an hour before the catastrophe three or four shocks of 

 earthquake were felt — not violent shocks, but of the vertical kind, 

 which are known to be dangerous. Shortly afterwards a boom- 

 ing sound came from the direction of the sea. At first the noise 

 was only like that of a coming gale ; rapidly it incieased until 

 the sound assumed the volume and din of artillery ; then in a 

 moment three successive waves, varying in height from twenty 

 to thirty feet, came rolling on the shore. In a space of time of 



NO. 1402, VOL. 54] 



about two minutes these waves had accomplished their fearful 

 work of devastation and ruin. 



Beyond the destruction of life and property some remarkable 

 incidents occurred. At Kamaishi one wave came curUng round 

 the land-locked bay from the left in a semicircle, meeting 

 another wave, which came in from the right, and before the 

 waters could recede a third wave came in from the centre. In 

 five minutes the town was wiped out. Temples, houses, and 

 vessels lying in the bay, were alike swept away, broken up and 

 destroyed. A large two-masted schooner of 200 tons was left 

 lying almost uninjured five hundred yards inland, in the centre 

 of what had been a wheat field. Another had its bows stove in, its 

 stern post and rudder carried away, its deck ripped open, and the 

 planking of its sides broken in short lengths. Altogether nine- 

 teen schooners and junks were cast ashore. In one place, men 

 swept out to sea from one side of a bay were thrown up alive 

 on the opposite beach ; and in another case, several persons were 

 deposited on an island nearly three miles from the town whence 

 the wave had carried them. 



The disturbance was not felt at sea at any great distance from 

 the shore. Fishermen engaged in their occupation near the 

 centre of the disturbance off the coast of Shizukawa heard, as 

 they supposed, the booming of big guns in the distance : look- 

 ing seawards they saw the surface of the ocean heave in huge 

 masses, which, after rising to a great height, broke in the middle 

 and swept northward and southward, striking the coast with a 

 deafening roar. The waves passed under the boats without 

 swamping them, but the water in the vicinity of the shore 

 remained so rough throughout the night that the fishermen 

 could not make the land until the morning. In other parts 

 fishermen, plying their trade four miles from the coast, on 

 returning to shore in the early morning after the catastrophe, 

 received the first notice of what had occurred ; others, engaged 

 three miles out in the same locality, encountered heavy breakers 

 rolling from the north. A steamer which left Hakodate in the 

 morning of the day of the disaster, and must have been near 

 the scene of the calamity at the time it occurred, experienced 

 nothing out of the common ; and other passing steamers re- 

 ported only an abnormal current. 



The Japanese Government have self-recording tide gauges 

 fixed at various parts of the coast. The three nearest stations 

 to the scene of disturbance are situate at Ayukawa, in the 

 Oshiaka district : at Hanasaki-mura, in the Hanasaki district ; 

 and at Misaki-Machi, in the Miura district in Choshi Bay. At 

 the first station the sea had been calm all the day of June 15. 

 Suddenly at 8.25 p.m. the water fell 7-9 inches ; five minutes 

 after it rose 4'59 feet ; and after an interval of five minutes had 

 fallen down again. After this there occurred a succession of 

 waves at intervals of about four or five minutes. At 11 p.m. the 

 height of the wave, as indicated on the gauge, was 6 '56 feet ; the 

 difference between the maximum and minimum height of the 

 waves being 8 '86 feet. After this the water gradually subsided 

 to the ordinary sea-level. 



At the second station, at 8. 50 p.m. the water fell 3-28 feet, 

 followed by five or six disturbances in an hour. After this an 

 accident to the gauge prevented any further record. At 8.10 

 the next morning, when the gauge was visited, the sea had 

 become calm. 



At the third station some small waves began to show at 8.40, 

 their height being 7^90 inches, and occurring at intervals of five 

 minutes, gradually decreasing in height until the normal con- 

 dition was obtained. 



From these records it appears that the influence of the wave 

 was greatest at the north station, and that an interval of twenty 

 minutes elapsed before the gauge at the southern station was 

 affected. 



The effect of this seismical disturbance of the crust ot 

 the earth was sensible all over its surface, so far as may be 

 judged from the records of instruments thousands of miles dis- 

 tant. On June 15, the day of the earthquake at Japan, at 

 about 8.30 p.m.. Prof. Vicentini, in Italy, noted the com- 

 mencement of the disturbance on the seismograph, and a similar 

 disturbance was recorded on the instrument at Shide, in the 

 Isle of Wight. 



As to the cause of the disaster. Prof. John Milne, in an article 

 in the Geographical Journal, states his opinion that this was due 

 to a seismic, rather than volcanic origin. The disturbances which 

 have occurred in this locality have been, without exception, con- 

 fined to the eastern sea-board of Japan, where the land suddenly 

 sweeps downward beneath the deep Pacific. Along the line of 



