THE SEVEEE JAPAN EAETHQUAKE OF THE 15th OF JANUARY, 1887. 



317 



vessels were donbtles.s caused partly loy motion communicated through 

 the cables, and partly by agitation of the water due to movements of 

 the sea-bottom. The earthquake was preceded by the usual warning 

 roar or rumbling, as of distant cannon, emanating apparently from 

 the western part of the origin-band. In that district, too, the after- 

 shocks on the same night were five in number, while in Tokyo there 

 was only one. There were four tremors near the origin during the 

 night of the 16th. 



■ Dwelling houses in country-towns and villages are always built of l^fi^i' 

 wood. Their frame-work is of timbers from four to seven inches square, 

 crossing one another at right angles. The uprights are placed about 

 three feet apart, and stand on rows of scjuared stones or boulders, the 

 intervening spaces being filled with bamboo-laths, on which is laid the 

 mud-plaster that forms the walls. Tiles and straw are principally used 

 for the roof- covering. In the district near the origin these wooden 

 houses shook with great violence. Several of them were more or 

 less twisted, cracked or unroofed. Sliding doors, covered with paper 

 or of wood, which serve as shutters, partitions and windows in 

 Japanese houses, broke and were shot out of their grooves. The 

 joints between the frames were in some cases badly loosened. Fig. 2 

 on Plate XXIII shows how one of these joints sufi^ered, together with 

 the paper covering of a sliding door which was rent by the vibrations. 

 Although there are thousands of wrecked houses, in the district of 

 origin, on the verge of falling down, and looking as if a strong breeze 

 would be enough to blow them over the buildings of this class never- 

 theless withstood the violence of the earth movements so far as to 

 escape actual demolition. The writer saw only two smnll rotten hovels 

 which had been thrown down. This circumstance shows the tenacity 

 of wooden framed structures. Prof T. Mendenhall, in a report* on 



* The Monthbj Weather Review, U. S. Signal Service, Angnst, 188C. 



