June 29, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



967 



have been relatively passive, while the 

 made ground in their immediate vicinity 

 was profoundly disturbed. Thoroughly 

 bonded and well cemented brick structures, 

 on similarly deep and solid foundations, 

 seem to have been equally competent to 

 withstand the shock, except for occasional 

 pier-like Avails not well tied to the rest of 

 the building. The weak points in wooden 

 frame structures were in general the faulty 

 underpinning and lack of bracing, and 

 chimneys entirely unadapted to resist such 

 shocks. With these faults corrected, frame 

 buildings of honest construction would suf- 

 fer little damage beyond cracking of plaster 

 in such a shock as the eighteenth of 

 April, save on the made ground, where 

 deep foundations and large mass appear 

 to be essential for the necessary degree of 

 passivity. 



Pipe lines and bridges crossing the rift 

 line present a peculiar, if not quite unique, 

 engineering problem which will doubtless 

 be solved in the near future. Pipe lines on 

 low swampy ground or in made ground are 

 in much gi'eater danger of destruction from 

 earthquake shocks than those on high 

 ground underlaid by rock, except in the 

 immediate vicinity of the rift, where noth- 

 ing could be constructed which would with- 

 stand the violence of the earth movement. 



One of the lessons of the earthquake 

 which seems peculiarly impressive is the 

 necessity for studying carefully the site of 

 proposed costly public buildings where 

 large numbers of people are likely to be 

 congregated. In so far as possible such 

 sites should be selected on slopes upon 

 which sound rock foundation can be 

 reached. It is probably in large measure 

 due to the fact of their having such a rock 

 foundation that the buildings of the State 

 University, at Berkeley, escaped practically 

 uninjured. The construction of such build- 

 ings as our public schools demands the most 

 earnest attention of the people and of the 



authorities charged with their construction. 

 A great many of our schools proved to be 

 of flimsy construction and ill adapted to 

 meet the emergency of an earthquake shock 

 of even less severity than that of the eight- 

 eenth of April. 



The commission in presenting this brief 

 report has had in mind the demand on the 

 part of the people of the state and of the 

 world at large for reliable information as 

 to the essential facts of the earthquake. 

 It has, therefore, not presumed to engage 

 in any discussion of the more abstruse geo- 

 logical questions which the event naturally 

 raises. It leaves such discussion for a 

 more exhaustive report which can only be 

 prepared after the campaign of data col- 

 lection is complete, and that may be some 

 months hence. 



Very respectfully submitted in behalf of 

 the commission. 



Andrew C. Lawson, 



Chairman. 

 A. 0. Leuschner, 



Secretary. 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



The twenty-fifth annual meeting of the 

 Royal Society of Canada was held in 

 Ottawa, Ontario, from Tuesday to Thurs- 

 day evening. May 22-24, under the presi- 

 dency of Dr. Alexander Johnson, M.A., 

 LL.D., D.C.L., emeritus professor of mathe- 

 matics in McGill University, Montreal. 

 There was a large attendance of fellows. 

 This society, which is of a distinctive na- 

 tional character, comprises four sections, 

 each numbering thirty members or fellows 

 selected and elected from any of the prov- 

 inces of the Dominion of Canada. Section 

 I. and Section II. are more distinctively 

 literary and historical and comprise French 

 and English writers, while Section III. and 

 Section IV., devoted to the mathematical, 

 physical and chemical sciences, as v/ell as 

 to the geological and biological sciences. 



