338 Eminent Licing Geologist a — Professor John Milne. 



now swept by the high tides of the Atlantic, but once the home of 

 the Great Auk, aud obtained a large collection of skeletons of this 

 now extinct flightless bird, formerly so abundant around the coasts of 

 all the northern lands, including our own Islands. 



When only a schoolboy Milne paid a visit, without parental leave, 

 in his holidays to Iceland, about the volcanic geology of which he 

 early became interested by u school prize he had received. 



In 1874 John Milne joined the expedition of Dr. Beke, which, 

 under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society and the 

 Rothschilds, was sent out to fix the exact site of Mount Sinai. During 

 this exploration he visited Cairo and made some interesting geological 

 notes on its environs (printed in this Magazine for 1874, p. 353). 



In 1875 Mr. Milne was appointed consulting engineer to the newly- 

 formed Public Works Department of the Japanese Government, and it 

 is characteristic of the man that, instead of going comfortably to his 

 post by the P. and 0. mail ])acket, he started from Hull on August 3, 

 1875, and made his way alone across Europe and Asia, following to 

 some extent the line of tlie present Siberian Railway, then unheard of, 

 and did not emerge at Shanghai until nearly a twelvemonth later. 

 He landed at Gcittenborg, crossed Norway, Sweden, and part of 

 Finland, and so to St. Petersburg. It took Milne eleven months, 

 following the old trade routes, and but few would care to endure the 

 dangers and discomforts of travelling thus through Siberia, Central 

 Asia, and China. His way led him across Russia and the Urals 

 into Siberia, thence by camel through Mongolia until he reached 

 " the Great Wall of China" on January 11, 1876, On one section 

 of the route, for thirty-one days there were no roads, no houses, no 

 bread, no vegetables, no washing, no change of dress day or night, 

 plenty of snow, and from 40 to 50 degrees of frost. 



For many days in the heart of China (where he was styled a 

 "foreign devil" by the natives) he was carried in a palankeen 

 attached to a couple of mules. It was not until February 24 that 

 he reached Shanghai. 



Professor Milne's experience of earthquakes began the first night 

 he spent in Tokyo, where he was attached to the Department of 

 Mines and Public Works. His residence provided for him by the 

 Government was named ' Yama Gouchi ', or the Mouth of the 

 Mountain. It proved a fitting introduction to the country. During 

 the night for a few minutes the dwelling creaked and groaned and 

 rolled from side to side, pictures see-sawed on the walls, while the 

 rings attached to the mosquito-curtains jingled in a high treble. 

 His career as a seismologist may be said to have dated from that 

 moment, and he has grappled with the intricacies of the subject ever 

 since. How could one fail to become interested in earthquakes, 

 whei'e, as Professor Milne says, " one had earthquakes for breakfast, 

 for dinner, and for supper, and to sleep on." He soon began to 

 make progress in his study of the new science, and also to perceive 

 the imperative need for widespread co-operation. 



With the fresh enthusiasm engendered by the disastrous earthquake 

 of February 22, 1880, when Yokohama bore the appearance of a town 

 that had been bombarded, he issued a call for a public meeting, which 



