EDITORIAL 183 
A.C. Lawson, University of California; C. F. Martin, U. S. Weather 
Bureau;  W- Ji MicGee, St: Louis Public Museum; H. F.- Reid; 
Johns Hopkins University; C. J. Rockwood, Jr., Princeton University; 
and R. S. Tarr, Cornell University. In the preliminary organi- 
zation of the committee Dr. G. K. Gilbert was chosen chairman 
and Dr. W. H. Hobbs, secretary. 
Some of the objects in view in forming the committee on seismology 
in America are as follows: 
1. To be available for, and to initiate counsel in connection with, legislation 
which provides for investigation of earthquakes or the means for mitigating their 
dangers. 
2. To bring into harmony all American and Canadian institutions doing 
seismological work, and to guard against unnecessary duplication of studies. 
3. To organize, if thought best, a correlated system of earthquake stations, 
which should include the outlying possessions and protectorates. 
4. To advise regarding the best type or types of seismometers for the corre- 
lated stations. 
5. To disseminate information regarding construction suited to earthquake 
districts. 
6. To collect data regarding the light as well as the heavy shocks, and to put 
the results upon record. 
7. To start investigations upon large problems of seismology. 
8. To advise with some weight of authority when catastrophic earthquakes 
have wrought national calamity. ; 
An additional object of the committee’s conferences has been 
suggested by the latest disaster in Jamaica. Press notices, presum- 
ably correct, call attention to marked changes of soundings within 
the harbor of Kingston as a result of the earthquake; and the interrup- 
tions of the Bermuda and Panama cables probably register larger 
movements along the scarps bordering the great deeps. The region 
as a whole (and the harbor of. Kingston in particular) is one within 
which particularly accurate soundings have been made. A resurvey 
as early as is practicable will probably yield valuable data regarding 
the nature of under-sea changes at the time of earthquakes. There 
is probably today no portion of the field of seismological research so 
little exploited, and yet so full of promise, as the study of data already 
in the possession of telegraphic cable companies. The little already 
accomplished by Milne has demonstrated both the value of these data 
