258 



REroRT — 1898. 



XIT. Notes on a Visit to Eartliqiiake Observatories in Italy and at 

 Strasshurg. By John Milne. . , 



With the object of more clearly understanding the nature of certain 

 forms of seismographic a^jparatus referred to or described in various pub- 

 lications, to see instruments and experimental apparatus descriptions of 

 which have yet to be published, to learn something respecting their various 

 degrees of sensibility and their installation, to see the manner in wliicli 

 they are manipulated — which in many instances it is difficult to express in 

 words — and, above all, to make myself acquainted with certain European 

 organisations for the study of movements of the earth's crust, in May of 

 this year I visited seismological observatories and offices at Catania, 

 Cassamicciola, Rome, Rocca di Papa, Padua, and Strassburg. 



At these particular stations there exist types of all the most important 

 seismometers, seismographs, and seismoscopes which are at present employed 

 in Europe, and it was for that reason that they were visited. 



In the following few notes it is not my intention to describe all that 

 I saw— inasmuch as that would be a repetition of much that is published — - 

 but only to say a few words respecting that which was .striking and to 

 record general imi^ressions. 



Cataxi.v. — (rli 0-^>!rrraf(>n'i di Cafaitiit e dcIVEtiut. 

 Director, Professor \. liicco. 



For a detailed description of these observatories see ' Memorie della 

 Societa degli Spettroscopisti Italiaui,' vol. xxvi. 1897. 



In 1669 a great part of Catania was destroyed, and 27,000 lives were 

 lost, by an eruption from one of the many parasitic craters which flank 

 the mound-like mass which with its central peak constitutes Etna. One 

 feature of the eruption was a flow of lava which passed over and throuff!; 

 the city, and only stopped wlien it entered tlie sea. This stream is now 

 patched over with yellow liclien, and along the sides of the railway which 

 passes through it as it enters the city from the north many cuttings in 



