118 EEPOKT— 1892. 



the line of the great fault, and again in a district to the west of Nagoyal, 

 about 25 miles farther south, in the middle of the Owaii Plain. This 

 second area of great disturbance may indicate the proximity of a second 

 line of fracture not visible on the surface, or it may be an area where 

 waves from various sides of the plane coalesced. 



With the first of these shakings great landslips took place, and moun- 

 tains which were green with forest now look as if they had been painted 

 yellowish white. The valleys in these districts have been filled with 

 debris, and behind one of the dams which has been formed there is now 

 a lake six miles in circumference. In one district on the eastern side of 

 the plain we are told that mountain peaks fell in and depressions were 

 formed. Depressions also occurred in some of the valleys, and the houses 

 of farmers suddenly sank up to their eaves, burying their inmates in a 

 sea of earth and mud beneath the floor on which they once lived. 



In the plains, river embankments which on the top are from 20 to 30 

 feet in width, and have slopes of 3 to 1 and 2 to 1, were very much 

 cracked and fissured. Usually these cracks were 2 or 3 feet in width, but 

 in places they had so far united that openings 10 or 15 feet wide and 

 about the same in depth had been formed. In all cases the fissures were 

 parallel to the river bank, and it was in villages near these banks where 

 destruction had been most complete. It might be expected that these 

 fissures would occur at distances of half wave-lengths from the river bank, 

 and at similar distances from each other, but no such rule was observable. 

 The general appearance of the ground was as if gigantic ploughs, each 

 cutting a trench from 3 to 12 feet deep, had been dragged up and down 

 the river banks. 



Fissures, out of which sand and water had been poured, sometimes to 

 form small craters, were also to be seen on the open plains. These fissures, 

 which seldom exceeded a foot in width, and which may have been formed 

 by the compression of watery strata beneath, may possibly give an ap- 

 proximate measure of maximum horizontal displacement, the direction of 

 motion being at right angles to the direction of the fissure. 



Along the railway-line many curious appearances were presented. It 

 was almost everywhere more or less disturbed, the exceptions being 

 where it passed through small cuttings. Along these cuttings, although 

 they might not be more than 20 or 50 feet in depth, the rails and sleepers 

 were unmoved ; from which it may be inferred that the movement on the 

 free surface of the plain had been much greater than the movement at a 

 comparatively shallow depth. Measurements of the motion experienced 

 on the surface and that recorded in pits 10 to 20 feet in depth have 

 already been given in former reports. The results of these experiments 

 have been practically applied to several buildings in Tokio, by giving 

 them basements and a free area. The Imperial College of Engineering 

 is such a building. It does not show the slightest trace of damage after 

 the last earthquake, whilst at a distance of 20 yards the workshop, which 

 is also a strong brick building, but rising from the surface, as already 

 stated, has had to be rebuilt. This is the third time the Engineering 

 College has escaped damage, whilst neighbouring brick buildings have 

 been cracked in almost every room. 



Where the line was on the open plain, and only separated from it by a 

 narrow ditch on either side, it appeared as if the ground had moved back 

 and forth beneath the track until the gravel ballast had been piled up into 

 bolster-like ridges between the sleepers. This indicated a longitudinal 



