NOTES ON THE JAMAICA EARTHQUAKE 752 
surface caved or sunk beneath the sea, many trees were submerged 
and killed by the salt water. The possible submergence of consider- 
able areas in this way at Morant Point was suggested on a previous 
page. 
EFFECT ON ARTIFICIAL STRUCTURES 
Kingston 
The intensity of the Jamaica earthquake was: very great and the 
destruction correspondingly severe, the ruin apparently being equal 
to, if not surpassing, that in the Charleston and San Francisco earth- 
quakes in our own country. While some high buildings escaped 
complete demolition, nearly all were badly wrecked, while in many 
cases even the one-story houses and stores were destroyed. The 
destruction was not uniform, however, varying greatly according 
to the nature of the materials used in construction. In the order of 
their resistance the structures were of steel, wood, stone, concrete, 
and _ brick. 
Brick structures.—In the brick structures some of the most inter- 
esting forms of destruction were exhibited by the posts forming parts 
of the fences found in front of a great number of houses. The usual 
method followed in the construction of the fence was the erection at 
intervals of from ten to fifteen feet of square brick posts, about one 
and one-half feet in diameter and five or six feet tall, between which 
iron or wooden picket fences were placed. When the vibrations struck 
the fences the brick posts were in go cases out of 100 broken off at 
their base, falling en masse at right angles to the fence, especially 
where it ran in a north-south direction. In several instances the 
brick posts-were thrown out of the fence, leaving the wooden palings 
standing. On the east-west streets the posts were sometimes thrown 
toward each other, crushing the wooden or buckling the iron fences 
between. Besides the destruction of the posts en masse some were 
disintegrated by the shock, the bricks of the center being loosened 
and causing a marked bulging. A few more vibrations and the 
whole would have crumbled. 
The destruction of the brick garden walls was also severe, every- 
thing over 3 feet in elevation being generally badly injured. On 
north-south streets there was a tendency to fall en masse, while in 
