SCIENCE, 



[Vol. XXI. No. 531 



SCIENCE: 



Published by N. D. C. HODGES, 874 Broadway, New York. 



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EARTHQUAKES IN AUSTRALASIA. 



BY GEOBSE HOGBEN, M.A., SECRETARY SEISMOLOGICAL COMMITTEE, 

 A.A.A.S., TIMARU, N. Z. 



Seismology is a branch of science that until quite recently re- 

 ceived very little attention in Australasia. This could hardly 

 be said to be due to the lack of phenomena; though, with one or 

 two exceptions, the earthquakes that have taken place, even in 

 New Zealand, — the seat of the worst disturbances. — have been 

 very mild in character. The stimulus the subject has received 

 lately was given by the Australasian Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, an association which has done so much in other 

 departments to encourage systematic scientific work. As one of 

 the research committees, the A. A. A. S. appointed a committee 

 to report upon seismological phenomena in Australasia; and I 

 think I cannot make a better beginning of what I have to say on 

 the subject than by setting forth in brief the work this committee 

 is attempting to do. 



In the first place it has set itself to compile a list of all recorded 

 earthquakes (within the area of its investigations) up to the 

 present time, including in that list all the important details as 

 far as they are given in the existing records. 



In the next place we have attempted to provide for the future 

 recording of earthquake shocks in all the colonies according to a 

 uniform system. These records include, among other details, the 

 exact time of the beginning of each shock, the time being checked 

 by the standard telegraph time of each colony through ihe medi- 

 um of the Public Telegraph Departments. 



Inasmuch, also, as it is, to a large extent, as part of a world- 

 system of observations that our observations in Australasia may 

 become useful, we propose to do for the islands of the Pacific, as 

 far as circumstances will admit, what is being done for the Aus- 

 tralasian colonies. There, of course, exact time- observations 

 are generally out of the question; but with the aid, already 

 largely promised, ot missionaries, consuls, and other residents, 

 much more, we trust, will be done than at first appears possible. 



To secure uniformity in recording the intensity of earthquakes, 

 the Committee have adopted as a common standard the Rossi- 

 Forel scale of intensity. Though rough and variable to a slight 

 extent, it has the advantage of being a recognized standard and 

 is suited to the nature of the evidence at our command. 



The materials obtained are used, where sufficient data are to 

 be had, in the determination of the origins of the shocks. In 

 many cases the epicentrum and velocity of propagation can be 

 found; and in a few instances the facts are sufficient in number 

 and accuracy for a more or less probable determination of the 

 depth of the centrum or actual source of disturbance. With the 



advantage of easy reference to a standard time in most parts of 

 the Australasian colonies, and with increased experience and 

 skill on the part of the observers, it is hoped that accurate obser- 

 vations may become more and more common; in fact, in New 

 Zealand, where the present system has been in use for three and 

 a half years, we find that this is the case. It is true that we 

 have very few seismographs ; but the great value of time obser- 

 vations based upon a universal standard time has been fully 

 shown by Major Dutton in his report upon the great Charleston 

 earthquake of August 31, 1886, and his conclusions in that respect 

 are fully borne out in our experience. 



The want of special instruments cuts us off from any direct 

 means of determining the amplitude and intensity of the shocks; 

 but the field of research already indicated will give us enough to 

 do for some time to come. 



If it be asked what we expect to accomplish by our investiga- 

 tions, I reply that any general theories relating to earthquake 

 phenomena must be based upon observations in all parts of the 

 world, and we aim at making our work of sufficient value to 

 count as a part — only a small part, perhaps — of the materials 

 required for solution of many of the interesting questions arising 

 out of, or connected with, seismology. For example, the nature 

 of the interior of the globe, whether solid or liquid, or solid but 

 potentially liquid, — a problem discussed in such an interesting 

 manner by Osmond Fisher in ' ' The Physics of the Earth's 

 Crust," — would receive considerable light from the determina- 

 tion of the depth of earthquake-origins. If no earthquakes, let 

 us suppose, could be shown to come from a greater depth than 

 twenty-five miles, we should have a strong presumption that at 

 about that depth there was a great change in the condition of the 

 interior; and with a very large number of instances we might 

 have something like a proof of such a break in continuity. The 

 physicists have been at war over this point for some time, and 

 without undue conceit we may say that a definite solution is at 

 least as likely to come from seismology as from any other branch 

 of physics. 



In another paper I hope to give a short account of the results 

 already obtained from our observations in this part of the globe. 

 I trust, however, that the editor will allow me to say here that I 

 shall be very glad to communicate with or receive hints from 

 any one engaged in seismological work in America (North or 

 South), especially with reference to earthquakes occurring on or 

 near the coast of the Pacific. 



THE PREFIX AQ- IN KITONAQA. 



BY ALBERT S. GATSCHET, VINITA, INDIAN TERRITORY. 



Up to the present only two scientists are known to have studied 

 seriously the Kootenay or Kitonaqa language, which is spoken 

 by about one thousand Indians in northwestern Montana and in 

 the adjacent parts of British America. These two investigators 

 are Dr. Franz Boas and Dr. A. F. Chamberlain; both have col- 

 lected a large amount of lexical material and a considerable body 

 of ethnological texts. Chamberlain's report on the tribe and 

 language forms one fascicle of the publications of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, which contains the 

 TranFactions of the Edinburgh Meeting of 1893, and is entitled, 

 " Eighth Report on the Northwestern Tribes of Canada,'' with 

 preface by Horatio Hale (octavo, pp. 71). 



The prefix aq- plays a great part in this northern language, for 

 the large majority of the substantives, many particles, and other 

 terms begin with it. The q- is pronounced like the Spanish j 

 and the German ch in lachen. It appears from Chamberlain's 

 long list of the substantives begining in aq-, that this prefix should 

 really be spelt Sqk-, for -k is always following the first two 

 sounds. 



These two sounds easily combine with each other in many of 

 the Indian languages. In Peoria and Cheyenne the k- alternates 

 with qk-, and in Tonica of Louisiana every k- may be spelt qk- 

 as well, for this is simply an " expansion " of the simple sound k-. 

 Chamberlain ventures no derivation or explanation of this prefix, 

 and Boas is also doubtful concerning its origin. 



