40 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



instruments have been kept in continuous operation, except for brief 

 stoppages necessary for cleaning the working parts and their read- 

 justment. The list of records includes tracings of nearly all the 

 important earthquakes that have occurred during the period, even 

 covering such remote areas of disturbance as India and Central 

 Asia. In general, therefore, the results secured at the station have 

 been quite satisfactory. 



With the approaching removal of the Museum offices and col- 

 lections to the Education Building, the future maintenance of the 

 seismographical work presents some questions for consideration and 

 decision. If the station be continued in its present quarters a good 

 deal of inconvenience and extra labor must be assumed by those 

 in charge. Furthermore, the inability to exercise immediate super- 

 vision of the instrument may entail a marked loss of efficiency, com- 

 pared with the previous service. The seismographs are still in good 

 state of repair. At the time they were purchased they represented 

 one of the most approved types, but since then larger and more 

 sensitive instruments have been developed so that they are now 

 somewhat inferior to those placed in the more recently established 

 stations. Their future service, therefore, will probably be of less 

 value comparatively than it has been in the past. On the whole it 

 seems of doubtful expediency to undertake the expense of providing 

 piers and other necessary adjuncts for their remounting in another 

 place. The alternative that is practically presented in the circum- 

 stances is either to continue the existing station with the additional 

 outlay of time and labor required for its future supervision and 

 with correspondingly less returns in the way of results, or else to 

 erect a new station at a convenient place, preferably in the Education 

 Building, and equip it for the most efficient service. 



The number of earthquakes recorded for the year ending Sep- 

 tember 30, 191 1, was nine, as compared with nineteen in the pre- 

 ceding period, making a total of eighty-six separate disturbances 

 since the station was established. The frequency, therefore, has 

 shown a marked falling off during the year and as might be expected 

 there have been relatively few microseisms. The small number of 

 distinctive shocks reported throughout the world indicates at least 

 a temporary halt in the succession of violent disturbances that ex- 

 tended altogether over several years and entailed such disastrous 

 consequences in San Francisco, Valparaiso, Kingston, Northern 

 India, Messina and Costa Rica. Most of the tracings have been of 

 very small amplitude and from uncertain sources. 



