333 
October 19th.—Asia Minor. Maximum in Tasmania on 
26th, 27th, 28th. (Nothing very special.) 
December 22.—Severe shock at Lisbon. 24th.—Launces- 
ton (several tremors), and New Zealand. 
February 10, 1884.- -Asiatic Turkey (severe). Tasmania, 
for several consecutive days, both before and after, culmi- 
nating in a violent one on the 14th, with several minor shocks 
same day. | 
April 22.— England. Tasmania, all through the month; 
strong ones on 12th, 14th, 24th, 25th, and 26th ; and on 27th 
my electric signal was going repeatedly, almost continuously. 
May 19.—Persia.— Severe. _Tasmania.—Repeated and 
almost continuous signals on 21st, 22nd, and 2érd. 
January 26, 1885.—Alhama (Spain).—‘ Severe.” “ Tre- 
mendous report. One person killed.” 
27, 28.—Southern Syria. 
27.— Valparaiso (morning).—Severe and long. 
31.—Algiers—Hight houses destroyed. 
30-31.—Tasmania (midnight).—Strong, after a month or 
more of comparative quietness. 
It will be seen by the foregoing list that a considerable 
interval elapses between the earthquakes elsewhere and their 
apparent effect upon us, far too long to admit of the 
supposition that it 1s the direct wave that reaches us. But 
may we not reasonably conceive of intermediate sources 
of energy (whatever may be their nature, for I am not going 
to commit myself to any volcanic theory in particular) which 
require only the slightest jar to disturb into operation, such, 
for instance, as fissures ready to collapse, or internal reser- 
voirs of water, or gases, just ready to burst their bounds? I 
simply throw out these suggestions for what they are worth; 
I will not presume to dogmatise. 
From the circumstance that very few of these shakings are 
felt down in the mines, the opinion has been pretty widely 
entertained, that they are merely superficial. I cannot accept 
this inference. In the mines the men are engaged about their 
work on solid ground with nothing but solid rock or earth 
around them—nothing to clatter or shake, or to give any 
indication of slight movement. On the contrary, above 
ground we are probably comfortably reclining, in the quiet 
of evening (when a great proportion of these tremors are 
noticed) perhaps on a spring sofa, ina more or less shaky 
tenement, and surrounded with glassware and nick-nacks that 
vibrate and respond to the slightest motion. No wonder, 
therefore, that minute shakings, totally unperceived by workers 
underground, are obstrusively apparent to us. 
It has been observed that earth-shocks have frequently been 
