252 HOVEY— EARTHQUAKES : [April 24, 



sea. The city was built upon a narrow sand spit formed of the 

 detritus brought down by rivers from the mountains of the interior 

 or cast up by the sea. It is estimated that 2,000 people lost their 

 lives in this disaster, when a tract of land about a thousand acres 

 in extent sank so as to lie thirty or forty feet under water. 



After the destruction of Port Royal the city of Kingston was 

 established on the gradually rising Liguanea plain across the harbor 

 from the old capital, and it flourished for 215 years, becoming a 

 compact city of 60,000 inhabitants. Its business portion extended 

 along the water front and was only twelve blocks long and two wide. 

 The city was built, however, upon unconsolidated gravels and sands 

 — alluvial and coast deposits that gave a foundation but little more 

 secure than the sand spit gave to old Port Royal. Hence when the 

 earthquake of January 14, 1907, occurred, 85 per cent, of the build- 

 ings in the city was injured or destroyed, and fire completed the ruin 

 over ten or fifteen blocks of the business and warehouse section. 



The shock probably began at 3 :33 P. M., though an exact state- 

 ment cannot be made through lack of accurate standard time in the 

 island. This defect as to time has made it impracticable to plot any 

 coseismal lines. The first series of vibrations, the great shock, 

 lasted 35 seconds, more or less, but the duration varied with the 

 position of the observer. The longest period was reported from the 

 north shore and as being 90 seconds. After the preliminary tremors, 

 which were heard before they were felt, the shock was double, the 

 first maximum being reached in about ten seconds, followed by a 

 second and less acute climax before the vibrations ceased. The in- 

 terval between the preliminary tremors and the main shock was 

 almost insensible. After shocks occurred for several months. 

 Through the city of Kingston and its immediate vicinity the earth- 

 wave shown by the first climax passed from west to east, but three 

 miles north of town the direction of motion was distinctly from 

 the south, while in the Hope River valley five miles east of the city, 

 the advance was from the northwest. The earthwave recorded by 

 the second maximum of shock was more undulatory in character 

 than the first and seems to have originated more to the south of the 

 city. This direction of motion combined with the first produced a 

 twisting counter-clock-wise movement of slender upright structures 



