NOTES 
VALPARAISO EARTHQUAKE OF AUGUST 16, 1906. 
Letter to the Smithsonian Institution from Professor Heber D. 
Curtis, of the D. O. Mills Expedition of Lick Observatory, California. 
“SANTIAGO, CHILE, Dec. 19, 1906. 
‘c 
... 1 have just returned from a talk with Professor Greve, 
of the Observatorio Nacional, who is connected with the Commis- 
sion: He tells me that a large amount of data has been collected 
from a considerable portion of Chile and that this material is at 
present being revised and prepared for publication by Dr. Steffens, 
of the Universidad de Chile. It is not the intention of the Commis- 
sion to publish a preliminary report, but to publish their results in 
the final form. 
“From the data collected it seems pretty certain that there has 
been some elevation of the coast of Chile. This gradual upheaval 
is a well-known geological fact. Whether the evidence secured by 
the Commission will prove this upheaval for the entire coast, I do 
not know, but it seems quite firmly substantiated for certain stretches. 
The strongest piece of evidence is given by a certain salt works to 
the south; this formerly made use of the tides to fill the catchment 
basins ; this is now (since Aug. 16th) no longer possible. At another 
place a sunken launch, formerly awash, is now covered forty to fifty 
centimeters. The data are not accurately worked up yet; the lifting 
is probably under one meter. 
“The Commission have found no traces of a rift stich as caused 
the earthquake at San Francisco. There have been many surface 
cracks, but in all cases these can be shown to be merely local transla- 
tions, occurring in the main near irrigation canals or near rivers. 
All these small rifts thus far found occur in soft or alluvial soil. A 
week or so ago I visited Hospital and Graneros, small towns to the 
south, where the action had been unusually severe, to investigate 
some such phenomena of which I had heard. I found numerous 
rifts, but all of local character. A particularly interesting case was 
observed at Graneros. Here, on the estate of Sefior Donoso there 
Commission appointed by the Chilean government to make a scientific in- 
vestigation of the phenomena accompanying the earthquake of August 16, 
1906. 
559 
