214 REPORT — 1898. 



It will be observed that we have here the records from three instru- 

 ments not controlled by the friction of writing pointers, and therefore 

 fairly comparable. 



No. 157, December 29, 1897. 



H. M. S. M. S. H. M. S. 



Shide . . 11 40 48 Large P.T.s 19 49 Duration . 1 22 28 



Catania .. 11 29 10 „ . 1 30 50 



EoccadiPapa. 11 56 „ . 27 



Nicolaiew. . 11 47 Small „ .250 



Toronto . . 11 32 29 No preliminary tremors „ . 1 10 



Port-au-Prince . 11 22 7 Near tlie origin 



Also at other stations in Italy. 



In connection with this earthquake Professor R. F. Stupart, of 

 Toronto, sends me the following note taken from the ' U.S. Monthly 

 Weather Review,' January 1898 : — • 



' December 2dth. 6hrs. 32mins. 43 sees. a.m., Port-au-Prince, Hayti, "W.I. 



' Professor T. Scherer reports as follows : — " A severe earthquake was 

 experienced at Port-au-Prince, lasting 1 minute and 31 seconds. The 

 following are the conclusions to be drawn from the curves traced by the 

 Secchi seismograph at the meteorological observatory of the College of 

 St. Martial : — 



' '' The entire phenomenon consisted of five consecutive shocks, the total 

 duration of which was 48 seconds, and of a series of feeble move- 

 ments very perceptible to an attentive observer. The first shock lasted 

 8 seconds : it began from east-north-east and from west-soutji-west. 

 The vertical component was quite strong at about the fifth second. The 

 movement immediately began with more force in the horizontal direction 

 and less in the vertical : this lasted 11 seconds, and the direction from 

 which it came was more toward the east. The third shock lasted 

 3 seconds, and was characterised by a very regular oscillatory movement. 

 The first shock was the strongest, lasted 10 seconds, began from the 

 north-east, and died away in the south-west, with a vertical component 

 that was scarcely appreciable. All the other movements, after the forty- 

 eighth second, were feeble with the same horizontal direction. During 

 all this time the seismic pendulum described ellipses in the sand whose 

 major axes varied from north-east through the south to south-west. The 

 Bertelli microseismometer was for a long time agitated, and finally main- 

 tained a north-south direction. 



' " The same earthquake was felt in the neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince 

 and with the same features. It seems to have been very violent in the 

 interior on the island of Dominica." ' 



This earthquake had a submarine origin, and interrupted the Cape 

 Haytien-Puerto Plata and Puerto Plata-Martinique cables, together 

 with the Dominican land lines. 



No. 158, December 29, 1897, to January 1, 1898. 



During this interval slight tremors were recorded at Shide. In Italy, 

 on December 29, between 11 hrs. SOmins. and 13 hrs., perturbations were 

 recorded in several observations. On December 31, at about 17 hrs., a 

 slight disturbance at Ischia and Florence was noted. 



