266 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



Seismographs. 



The six Milne-Shaw seismographs belonging to the British Association 

 have remained on loan to the seismological stations at Oxford (2), Edinburgh, 

 Perth (W. Australia), and Cape Town (2). 



Mr. Shaw reports that the seismograph exhibited in Edinburgh at the 

 meeting of the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics has been 

 despatched to Brisbane. Another is nearing completion for Durham and a 

 further machine is on order for the Azores. 



British Earthquakes. 



A slight earthquake which occurred at 1.43 G.M.T. on July 9, 1937, 

 was felt over an area about 30 miles in diameter, centred near Walsall. 

 Records were obtained at West Brbmwich, where the disturbance lasted 

 for about i J minutes, and also at Stonyhurst, Oxford and Kew. Mr. F. J. 

 Dixon, Engineer-in-Chief to the South Staffordshire Waterworks Company, 

 sent for inspection a pressure diagram on which the movement was well 

 marked. It was a daily chart recording at Walsall the pressure in a 

 24-in. cast-iron main. At the time of the shock the recording pointer rose 

 from 129 lb. per sq. in. to 136 lb. and fell to 122 lb. Whether this was 

 the result of an actual change of pressure in the pipe, or due to a mechanical 

 vibration of the instrument is uncertain. 



On other dates the following small disturbances were reported in the 

 newspapers : 



December 29, 1936. East Kent. 



April 7, 1937. North Staffordshire. 



June 26, 1937. Near Inverness. 



It may be noted here as an item of information with regard to British 

 earthquakes that in a paper published in Gerlands Beitrdge zur Geophysik, 48 

 (1936), 239, Prof. V. Conrad, using material prepared by the late Dr. F. B. 

 Nopcsa, finds that there is no tendency in the British Isles for earthquakes 

 to be associated either with rising or with falling barometric pressure. 

 This is in contrast with the conditions in certain continental countries, 

 notably Italy and Norway, where the regions in which one tendency or the 

 other prevails are well defined. 



Seismology in the West Indies. 



The report by Dr. C. F. Powell ^ on the seismological part of the work 

 of the Royal Society Expedition to Montserrat has been published as well as 

 Mr. Macgregor's ^ account of the geology of the island. 



Dr. Powell was able to locate the epicentres of 43 earthquakes which were 

 registered by the Jaggar shock-recorders made at Kew Observatory for the 

 expedition. It is reported that the seismic activity on the island has con- 

 tinued to diminish, so that the opportunity for investigating the nature of 

 the earth movements has passed. It is hoped that arrangements will be 

 made for the installation of shock-recorders in several of the islands in the 

 Lesser Antilles, so that a watch may be kept on any development of new 

 activity in that region. 



In a recently published account of the meteorology of Jamaica attention 



1 Proc. Roy. Soc. A, 158, 479-494 (1937). 

 ^ Proc. Roy. Soc. B, 121, 232-252 (1936). 



