ON THE EARTHQUAKE AND VOLCANIC PHENOMENA OF JAPAN. 121 



death. The chief causes which led to the destraction of Japanese build- 

 ings were : — 



1. The heavy roofs, which are usually made of a heavy framework 

 carrying a layer of heavy tiles bedded in a thick layer of mud. The 

 roofs of the farmers' houses are covered with a heavy thatch. These 

 latter fell intact, and even now the country is covered with these saddle- 

 shaped masses, which have served as temporary tent-like shelters. 



2. The want of cross-bracing and the thinness of the vertical sup- 

 ports, the strength of which is reduced to perhaps an eighth of what it 

 might be by a variety of tenons, mortices, and other cuts, made for the 

 reception of cross-timbers. 



Both of these faults in the construction of an ordinary Japanese 

 dwelling might be easily overcome, but from the buildings which are now 

 being erected it is clear that the survivors prefer that to which they have 

 been accustomed and can easily obtain. Buildings to resist earthquake 

 motion are outside the experience of ordinary carpenters in Japan, and 

 any novelty in construction would be expensive. For these reasons, 

 coupled perhaps with the idea that severe earthquakes only recur at long 

 intervals, the inhabitants of the Nagoya district are giving another trial 

 to the old forms of construction. 



Among the buildings which were only shattered, but which did not 

 fall, are two castles and several heavy-roofed temples. 



The castles stood, partly, perhaps, because they were well built, partly 

 because they were surrounded by deep moats, but chiefly on account of 

 their pyramidal form, their bases being sufficiently wide and strong to 

 withstand effects due to the inertia of their upper parts. 



The temples undoubtedly resisted the severe movements partly 

 because they were well built, but chiefly, perhaps, on account of the multi- 

 plicity of jointed corbel-work, which comes between the upper parts of 

 the supporting pillars and the heavy roof. If this had not existed, and 

 acted as a yielding medium between the roof and its supports, it seems 

 impossible that the latter could have resisted the inertia of the load above 

 them. 



A class of buildings which here and there escaped entire destruction 

 were structures like some of the school- houses, which were built of wood, 

 and framed according to foreign methods. 



The movements which caused all this terrible destruction throughout 

 the Gifu and Nagoya Plain do not appear to have been waves which were 

 entirely those of elastic compression and distortion. On the coast-line to 

 the north of the devastated district we are told that the shore-line rose 

 and fell, and with this rising and falling the waters receded and advanced. 

 In the district itself many eyewitnesses tell us that they saw the ground 

 in waves. 



Mr. Kildoyle, an engineer, who at the time of the disaster was in 

 Akasaka, says that the waves came down the street in lines. Their 

 height may have been 1 foot, and the distance from crest to crest any- 

 thing between 10 and 30 feet ; but he very naturally added that he 

 could not be sure of any measurements, as he was expecting that the 

 houses on one side or the other of the street might at any moment fall in 

 upon him. It may here be remarked that because on the street side of 

 the houses in a town there are many openings, which make this side of 

 the buildings weaker than they are at the back, the tendency is to fall 

 forwards from two sides into the street. For the safety of the inhabitants 



