GENERALIZATIONS CONCERNING EARTHQUAKES 23 



fornia were greatly overestimated. At least such is 

 the fact in regard to stories about some of the old 

 missions. The falling of the tower of the old 

 adobe mission church at San Juan Capistrano in 1812 

 (29 persons having been killed thereby) and of adobe 

 houses at Yuma and Tejon in 1857, are the outstanding 

 earthquake disasters of Southern California. In each 

 instance, the buildings of adobe mud were inferior in 

 construction, without proper reinforcement, if any, and 

 of crushing and tensile strengths so low that one won- 

 ders how they sustained the weight of their own walls. 

 The facts of history seem to be that it was the bell 

 towers of the old missions that tumbled, and these 

 were extraordinarily unstable, mud structures. At 

 least such was the case at San Juan Capistrano and 

 probably when "the bells of San Gabriel were shaken 

 down." 



A significant fact in this connection is that, as a re- 

 sult of the repeated rain-storms of February, 1927, the 

 foundation of the tower of the old mission of San Luis 

 Rey were disintegrated to such an extent that it also 

 fell, without aid of any earthquake vibrations. For- 

 tunately, no worshippers were present to be killed. 



Mr. John Gaffey of Los Angeles states that at the 

 San Juan Capistrano Mission there was originally a 

 tower which had become weakened by the action of 

 the elements and that this was shaken down through 

 the roof during services at the time of the earthquake 

 of 1812, causing numerous deaths — the greatest loss 

 of life from all the known earthquakes of Southern 

 California. 



A recent survey of the ruins of this mission by the 

 writer makes him wonder how the structure as orig- 



