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SCIENCE 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 4&^ 



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THE JAPANESE EAETHQUAKE. 



On the 22d of October I left Japan, and on arrival in Vic- 

 toria, B.C , found that six days later there had occurred the 

 most disastrous earthquake of recent years. Previous lo my 

 departure shocks had been increasing in frequency, and 

 several severe ones had been reported from the southern 

 provinces. A sharp shock was felt in Yokohama about 6.30 

 of the 22d, which perceptibly swayed my brother's house. 

 and caused things therein to move and rattle freely, the 

 tremors lasting two or three seconds. During the summer I 

 had made the ascent of Fuji, Asama, and other mountains, 

 and had visited all theplacesof importance along the Inland 

 Sea. I spent several days in Kobe, Osaka, Kioto, Nara, 

 Nagoya, etc., and in other districts which have suffered so 

 severely from the earthquake of the 28th of October. At 

 this time there were no signs of the impending destruction. 

 By the last mail I received from my brother papers up to 

 the 18th of November containing very interesting accounts 

 of the disasters and phenomena at the various places. Some 

 details of the event have been already given in your col- 

 umns, but a few additional items may not be without inter- 

 est. In Yokohama the damage was inconsiderable and 

 confined chiefly to chimneys and windows, with no loss of 

 life or limb. The chimney of the Electric Light Works fell, 

 and caused a stoppage of light. At Kobe a slight shock was 

 felt at about 4 a.m., but this was only the precursor of the 

 severer one which came at 6 h. 34 m. 35 s., and which lasted 

 thirty six seconds. A large number of chimneys were thrown 

 down, crashing in many instances through the roofs, and 

 buildings were badly twisted and strained. In some of the 

 curio shops there was a large breakage of valuable goods. 

 The centre of the disturbance was, however, more to the 

 eastward, and the prefectures of Gifu and Aichi (in which 

 is Nagoya) suffered most excessively. The great city of 

 Osaka, second only in population to Tokio, sustained serious 

 damage. The shock occurred at 6.39 A.M., and about twenty 



followed during the forenoon. Many lives were lost by the 

 collapse of some of the spinning factories. The Naniwa 

 mill, a brick three story building, had a span of 120 feet, an<J 

 the walls, apparently not properly tied together, separated so 

 as to allow the roof to fall in, and many of the employees 

 were killed or wounded. In the foreign settlement (Kavva- 

 guchi) nearly all the houses lost their chimneys and suffered 

 more or less damage otherwise. The bridge across the Yoda- 

 gawa at this point was also broken by one of the piers sink- 

 ing several feet. The veneral Bishop of Exeter and his son. 

 Bishop Bickersteth of Japan, were guests of Venerable Arch- 

 deacon Warren and narrowly escaped injury from the chim- 

 ney falling through the house. The arsenal and mint sus- 

 tained loss through the distortion and breakage of chimneys, 

 etc., but there appears to have been no loss of life in these 

 more substantial buildings. 



In the town of Gifu the destruction was widespread, and 

 the number of killed and wounded very great, while fires 

 broke out, which were not finally extinguished until the 

 30th, and added to the loss of property. The Tokaido Eail- 

 way through this region suffered severely by the destruction 

 of stations and bridges, and the loss has been stated at 

 $500,000. All the villages along the line were disturbed, and 

 some almost totally destroyed. 



Nagoya, a fine city of nearly 200,000 inhabitants, received 

 great injuries, and tlie loss of life and property was teri-ible 

 there. The shock is reported to have occurred at 6.30 a,m.. 

 and 200 shocks to have been felt during the forenoon. All 

 the brick buildings in the city except two, that of the Electric 

 Light Company and the railway freight shed, were wrecked. 

 The roof of the post office fell in and four of the employees 

 were killed, and the prison was destroyed and many of the 

 inmates killed or wounded. An early morning service was 

 being held in the Methodist chapel, and four of the native 

 Christians were killed, and Mr. and Mrs. Van Dyke and sev- 

 eral natives badly wounded. The embankments of the Kiso 

 Eiver were broken, and several villages were swept away and 

 many people drowned by the escaping flood. 



The foregoing are but a few of the details of this fearful 

 catastrophe; the mere list of the places which suffered 

 (Shizuoka, Hamamatsu, and other important towns included) 

 would alone take up too much space. At Nagoya the verti- 

 cal movement is said to have been eight and a half inches, 

 and an Osaka correspondent describes the houses as literally 

 dancing, and the trees swaying to and fro as if in a gale. 

 Mount Asama (only smoking heavily when I was on it ir> 

 September) was started into greater activity and was sending 

 forth flames and ashes, and Mount Ibuki (between Gifu and 

 Lake Biwa) was also in eruption. The sea is said to have 

 been violently disturbed in various places, even far from 

 land, and the captain of the "China," which left Hongkong 

 on the 31st of October, reported in Yokohama: "Nov. 8, at 

 6 45 P.M., passed Suwusiina twelve miles off. The volcano 

 on the island was in eruption, shooting flames to the height 

 of about 800 feet, at intervals of about thirty seconds." 



Shocks continued at frequent intervals for .several days 

 after the first destructive one, but vpere diminishing in num- 

 ber and strength. The following are the latest figures for 

 the prefectures of Aichi, Gifu, Fukui, and Mikawa, the most 

 of the loss having been suffered by the two first named: 

 Killed, 7,260; injured, ll,7i6; buildings (temples, dwellings, 

 warehouses, etc.) destroyed, 111,566, and damaged, 53,688. 

 The greatest loss of life appears to have been due to modern 

 brick buildings and to the early hour, when people had not 

 left their houses. W. Hague Harrington. 



