Revieus — Milne 8^ Barton's Great Earthquake in Japan. 323 



us as a handsome album, measuring 16 inches by 11 inches, with 

 text by himself and Prof. W. K. Burton, illustrated by thirty plates 

 reproduced from actual photographs, vividly portraying the scenes 

 of this terrible calamity, each plate accompanied by descriptive 

 letterpress. The following extracts are taken from the authors' 

 introduction : — 



" Japan is a land of Earthquakes and Volcanoes. Every year its 

 inhabitants are shaken by at least five hundred shocks, and at 

 intervals — several of which fall within the memory of the living — 

 some part or other of the Empire is visited by a terrible catastrophe. 



" When nature thus exerts itself cities are rocked like ships upon 

 the ocean, and it is some time before equilibrium is restored. There 

 is a mighty effort, as if a mountain range had escaped the pressure 

 that held it in its crumpled form, and the country is suddenl}^ thrown 

 into the most violent oscillation. Complete relief, however, is not 

 obtained at once ; and, for some months, minor yieldiugs announce 

 themselves with subterranean thunderings and smaller shakings on 

 the surface. In these years one or two thousand shakings are added 

 to the average five hundred." 



" When we are not shaken by Earthquakes, certain sections of the 

 country are threatened by volcanoes. Only a few years ago a terrible 

 explosion took place on the side of the grass-covered Baudaison, 

 and in less than ten minutes a tract of country measuring thirteen 

 miles by ten was submerged beneath a sea of earth and boulders at 

 least one hundred feet in depth. Hamlets and farms were buried, 

 and nearly 600 people lost their lives." 



*' In Japan there are at least three lines of weakness through which 

 volcanic forces have forced openings, and around these the ejected 

 material has built up cones. The first of these lines — which is at 

 least 1000 miles in length — comes from Kamchatka through the 

 Kuril Islands and Yesso down Nippon. Here it is met by a second 

 line about 1500 miles in length, almost at right angles, which runs 

 through the Bonin Islands to the Ladrones in the Pacific. The third 

 comes up from the Philippines through Formosa, to the centre 

 of Kinslim, where it terminates in Asosan, a volcano with a ring- 

 formed crater ten miles in diameter. In the middle of Japan there 

 are no volcanoes, but severe Earthquakes have been as frequent there 

 as they have been in other portions of the country. The greatest 

 frequency is along the east coast ; and these disturbances, which are 

 of daily occurrence, do not come from the volcanoes, nor does their 

 frequency show any relationship to volcanic action as exhibited at 

 craters." ......... 



" The vapour to which we now look as being a possible cause of 

 Earthquakes is that of water. By capillary action, water soaks 

 downwards to heated regions, and the resulting steam we know to 

 be the motive power at our volcanoes. The earth's crust not being 

 sufficiently strong to withstand the increasing subterranean pressure, 

 whole mountains have been dissipated as dust and boulders, and 

 although a great portion of the force of the explosion has been spent 

 in the creation of air- waves, earthquakes of considerable magnitude 



