18 REPORT—1858. 
The want of further historic information upon this region is much to be 
regretted. It has been, since anything has been recorded of it, known as 
subject to earthquakes. Cities, the sites of bishoprics in the ancient Christian 
church of Africa, were thus demolished, and now astonish the traveller. 
amidst rocky solitudes by acres of hewn stone on the sites of prostrate 
edifices that mark the past magnificence of Carthaginian and Roman rule. 
And at the present day, earthquakes are frequent and serious, as the many 
edifices erected by the French since they have been in possession of Algeria, 
and since thrown down, demonstrate. 
Whether, as a seismic region, Northern Africa have a centre of dis- 
turbance of its own, and if so, whether this exists deep within the little- 
known recesses of the Atlas chain, or beneath the southern verge of the Me- 
diterranean basin, or whether its disturbances are only derivative, and have 
their centre either in the volcanic region of the Canaries or amongst the 
towering peaks of Abyssinia, all yet remains to be discovered. No infor- 
mation worthy of any confidence has reached me as to the general horizon- 
tal direction of shocks in this region. How much to be desired is it, that 
the government of the Emperor of the French would systematize seismo- 
scopic observations in their African possessions ! 
The last of Perrey’s European series now comes before us; and in the 
following table he has given the results for— 
TazsLe XIV. — Earthquakes of the Turco-Hellenic Territory, Syria, the 
/Egean Islands, and Levant. 
Earthquakes with date of Day or Month. | With date of | 
Season only. |6 s 
5 ‘ = " so aa 
Century. ae Ba hee E B 2 4 Bu is : Total. 
&|S/4|. 2/8/2/8/8| 82 | #8 Ss 
2SIB/E/E/E/S) Bl mIe/ Sib] s] & Bap 
B(SiIS(SIS/ElS/2/ 5/5/2131 “8 | Ba F 
Sls lelalelisl[asladjalolala Bla 
1 ee (rcloekiar Ueda al i Bok Wy, Lames 
V. 1 Aika inde 3 1 eae ts PPR ele 
Wlsesessdoe 1st a sce] Pea aii ae oe 103) 27 
VIMY Di cosale ASG aN ay <p 6 8 
VIII. . Diie Dee Aer, Wits Dlice gl tetas ] 1 3 12 
IX... 1 4 ere 2 aah 1 sal 2 7 
Dal FOI aac ce 2) 2) J - nae 5 
Dsl ete: cusrensts 1, Bea Satie! a a Ui (i a 
2 I Si cel errs Me ene Vie Beas a 2 19°} 23 
XII. L) slispipiey ‘ 1 9 13 
OVS paci|i wales My Li keel) Scala ayel) Be) awe le selee 1 3 8 
DROW er cis s/s aja aiard||, wise Wet SL weal ee atl pata teeta an 7 11 
VE. sadn telh suds Sh vetle 2h Uiseealueoe all cated whl mea owe 14 22 
QU Baeiee 5] fe Os) 9 Ula a a Se - fl2 h Wne igt lbe a aie 17 | 53 
XVIII. -.) 9/ 8) 5] 9 10 13) 12) 8/11) 8 9] 8 2 sae 12 | 124 
PUN) «ei 22) 20) 116 10) 16 15) 14) 22) 14) 17) 12) 14 2 2 1 | 197 
Total ..| 40) 35) 31) 30) 37 35] 35) 40} 40) 34) 33) 33 8 5 {134 | 570 
Winter Spring Summer | Autumn 
106 102 115 100 
This vast region embraces the Turco-Greek peninsula, from Trieste to 
Constantinople southward of the Balkan range, the Greek Archipelago and 
Asia Minor to Bagdad, with a portion of Syria and the Levant. 
Perrey remarks, that the number of facts he has been able to collect are 
age gO 
