TTI. John Milne. 391 
The map confirms in detail the laws of distribution which Milne 
had already deduced from the earthquakes of north Japan during 
the years 1881-3: Of those earthquakes 84 per cent originated near 
the sea-coast or beneath the ocean. He again notices that the 
majority of earthquakes originate along the east coast and that in 
many of them the epicentres are submarine. Drawing lines in an 
east and south-east direction from the highlands of Japan into the 
Pacific Ocean, he found that the slope in places is as much as one 
in thirty ov twenty, and that it was in such districts where the 
surface-flexures are greatest that the earthquakes are most frequent 
and violent. A second and somewhat unexpected result is that the 
central portion of Japan, in which active volcanoes are numerous, 
is singularly free from earthquakes. Lastly, Milne showed that 
with two or three exceptions the districts in which earthquakes 
are frequent are also those in which movements of secular elevation 
and depression are taking place.! 
Catalogue of Destructive Earthquakes—The homogeneity of the 
second catalogue of Japanese earthquakes fails us in all catalogues 
extending over many centuries. Milne sought to restore this valuable 
feature to his last great work—the catalogue of destructive earth- 
quakes—by confining it to shocks which have caused some marked 
injury to property, those due to ““ movements which have probably 
resulted in the creation or extension of a line of fault’’. Even so, the 
catalogue is inevitably incomplete. For instance, during the first 
thousand years of the Christian era the records of three out of every 
four earthquakes come from Italy, China, and Japan ; during the 
nineteenth century the proportion drops to one in five. Many of 
our seismic records only began to exist during the last five centuries, 
that of America in 1520, of the Philippine Islands in 1600, of India 
in 1668, and of New Zealand in 1848. Nevertheless, unless some 
unexpected sources of information should be disclosed, it seems 
unlikely that very material additions can be made to Milne’s 
catalogue. It must be regarded as exhaustive as it is now possible 
to render it. 
The catalogue, which occupied Milne for several years, was 
published in 1911. It covers a period of 1893 years, from A.D. 7 
to 1899, and contains 4,151 entries. As far as possible it states for 
every earthquake the year, month, and day of its occurrence ;_ the 
country visited by it, and often the part of the country in which 
it was felt most strongly ; the intensity of the shock according to 
a scale of three degrees ; and lastly the authorities for the information 
given. Sometimes a few details are added, such as the number of 
lives lost or of houses destroyed, which furnish a more precise idea 
of the disastrous character of the earthquake.” 
Distribution of Earthquakes in Time.—Incomplete as the catalogue 
may be for the whole world, Milne points out that for Europe from 
1 Journ., vol. 4, 1895, pp. xXiv—xvil. 
2 Rep. Brit. Assoc., 1911, pp. 649-740. 
