l899-'00 TRANSACTIONS 1 27 



Observatory in a seismological survey of the world, and recom- 

 mending that a seismograph of the Gra3^-Milne pattern should be 

 purchased and there installed. Sir I^ouis Davies, the minister 

 under whom I have the honor to serve, was pleased to authorize 

 the expenditure of the necessary funds, and our seismograph was 

 put in operation on September 20th, 1897, at 4 p.m.; and, as it 

 proved, it was exceedingly unfortunate it was not started a little 

 earlier, as at the very moment we were engaged in making the 

 final adjustments, the earth was pulsating from the effects of a 

 violent quake which had occurred in Borneo. The instrument 

 used consists of a horizontal pendulum with a boom two feet six 

 inches long, at the end of wdiich is a plate in which is a narrow 

 slit, parallel to the length of the boom. The position of this 

 beneath a slit at right angles to it is shown by a speck of light 

 from a small lamp, reflecting downwards, which photographs 

 continuously on a bromide film two inches wide, whch passes at 

 the rate of five feet each da3^ Ever)-^ hour the light is eclipsed 

 by a screen attached to the long hand of a watch, and thus a 

 time scale is applied. 



It may also be mentioned here, that when in Toronto at the 

 meeting of the British Association, Prof. Milne informed me that 

 the committee wished to have a station on the Pacific coast. As I 

 knew that there was an association grant for starting some few 

 stations, I informed him that, if the committee would supply the 

 instrument, the Meteorological service would supply an observer ; 

 and the result was that in the summer of 1898 a seismograph was 

 put in operation at Victoria, B. C, in charge of the meteorologi- 

 cal observer, Mr. E. Baynes Reed. 



The first earthquake recorded in a thoroughly satisfactory 

 manner by the Toronto instrument occurred on December 29th, 

 1897. -^t nil 22m 7s G. M. T. at Port Au Prince, Hayti, there 

 were three violent shocks within 48 seconds. At Santiago num- 

 erous buildings were much injured. This quake had a sub-marine 

 origin and interrupted two cables from the island. Ten minutes 

 twenty three seconds after the first shock in Hayti our Toronto 

 seismograph began its record, and 8m 19s later it was recorded in 

 the Isle of Wight. I find from the British association report 

 that the tremors were also recorded in Italy and Russia. As I 

 would doubtless weary you were I to enumerate anything like 



