288 REVIEWS 



The California Earthquake of April i8, igo6. By the State Earth- 

 quake Investigation Committee, A. C. Lawson, Chairman. 

 Washington: Carnegie Institution, 1909. Two vols, v^ith 

 Atlas. Vol. I, pp. xviii+451 (4to); pis. 146. With folio atlas 

 of 25 maps and 15 sheets of seismograms. 

 The long delay in the appearance of the second volume of this report 

 makes it advisable to call attention to the great importance of the part 

 already published. Even without the second volume, this monograph 

 is one of the most elaborate of any earthquake report that has yet appeared. 

 The only reports inviting comparison upon this basis are those by the Naples 

 Academy of Science on the great Calabrian earthquake of 1783 (xiv+3Si 

 folio pages with atlas and 69 plates); by Robert Mallet on the so-called 

 Neapolitan earthquake of 1857 (830 pp.) ; by the French Academy of Science 

 upon the Andalusian earthquake of 1884 (772 pp. and 42 pis.); and by 

 R. D. Oldham upon the great Assam earthquake of 1897 (xviii-l-379 pp. 

 with 42 pis. and 3 maps). 



The already published text upon the California earthquake is in very 

 large part an edited collection of extremely valuable data gathered by a 

 large number of geologists, the work of correlation and presentation having 

 been carried out by a geologist who has made important contributions to 

 American geology. To the geologist, the seismologist, the engineer and 

 builder, and to the general reader, the report is one of very great value, 

 but its sphere of usefulness must be very much limited by the difficulty 

 of procuring it (the already published portion is sold for $17.50); and to 

 some extent also by the form of publication, since the atlas intimately illus- 

 trates the text but is so unwieldy that it cannot be kept near it in any stand- 

 ard library. The lack of any index whatever must also be greatly regretted, 

 since it is only by running through the table of contents that any desired 

 subject can be located. To illustrate, one of the most valuable sections of 

 the work describes experiments along new lines made with a shaking 

 machine by Mr. F. J. Rogers. It is necessary to read four pages of contents 

 in order to find the page reference, and even then the author's name does 

 not appear. 



As regards the atlas, the folio size has apparently been fixed to allow 

 of the introduction of fifteen 30'' quadrangles of the map of the United 

 States, upon which by means of a single uninterrupted red line the general 

 course of the earthquake rift is indicated. In view of the lack of all detail, 

 it would seem that the relation of the rift to the topographic relief could be 

 much better brought out upon a single map of correspondingly reduced 

 scale. Throughout the report the attempt has clearly been to set down the 



