44 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE. 



cost of maintenance of a solar observatory at a suitable spot in the 

 interior of the continent was estimated at about 1,500L per annum 

 for the earliest years, ' with probably an expanding outlay as the work 

 developed. ' 



The Labour Ministry under Mr. Fisher has now returned to power, 

 and it is thought that it will be no less sympathetic than Mr. Deakin's 

 Ministry. Towards the sum of 10,000L that is required for the con- 

 struction and equipment, about 4,000L has been subscribed in money 

 and apparatus, so that as matters stand at present the sum of 6,000L 

 is alone required to enable the whole world to be linked up by a chain 

 of observatories, and the scheme of International Co-operation in Solar 

 Research to be carried completely into effect. 



Seismological Investigations. — Fifteenth Report of the Committee, con- 

 sisting of Professor H. H. Turnek (Chairman), Mr. J. Milne 

 (Secretary), Mr. C. Vernon Boys, Sir George Darwin, Mr. Horace 

 Darwin, Major L. Darwin, Dr. E. T. Glazebrook, Mr. M. H. 

 Gray, Professor J. W. Judd, Professor C. G. Knott, Professor 

 R. Meldola, Mr. P. D. Oldham, Professor J. Perry, Mr. W. E. 

 Plummer, Professor J. H. Poynting, Mr. Clement Reid, and 

 Mr. Nelson Richardson. (Drawn up by the Secretary.) 



[Plates I and II.] 



Contents. 



TAGE 



I. General Notes 44 



II. New Stations 45 



III. Distribution of Earthquakes in 1909 47 



IV. A New Departure in Seismology 48 



V. Changes in Level accompanying certain Earthquakes 49 



VI. Changes in Level due to Tidal Influence 49 



VII. Megaseismic Activity and Rest 54 



VIII. A Catalogue of Large Earthquakes 55 



IX. Catalogue of Destructive Earthquakes in the Russian Empire, Iceland, and 



the Western part of South America 57 



I. General Notes. 



The following notes, which have been brought together to form the 

 fifteenth 'Annual Report of this Committee, refer for the most part to 

 work which is in progress rather than to work which has attained a stage 

 approximating completion. 



Your Committee ask to be reappointed with a grant of 60L 

 Registers. — Since the meeting of last year Circulars Nos. 20 and 21 

 have been, issued. They refer to observations made at Shide, Kew, 

 Bidston, Edinburgh, Paisley, Eskdalemuir, Haslemere, West Brom- 

 wich, Stonyhurst, San Fernando (Spain), Valetta, Beirut, Ponta 

 Delgada, Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Cairo, Bombay, Kodaikanal, 

 Alipore, Colombo, Irkutsk, Tokio, Batavia, Toronto, Victoria, Balti- 

 more, Trinidad, Chacarita and Pilar (Argentine), Honolulu, Perth, 

 Sydney, and Cliristchurch. 



