660 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BALTIMORE MEETING 



Hon. W. F. Frear, governor of the Hawaiian islands, writes : 



"Hawaii is an important point for observations of this kind, but bow much can be 

 done in this direction is a question. I shall be glad to give what encouragement I can in 

 this matter. The federal government now has a magnetic observatory here, which also 

 contains a seismograph." 



William Johnstone. Esq.. colonial secretary of Jamaica, writes : 



"In reply I am to state for the information of the Society that the Weather Service of 

 Jamaica has already in use two seismometers in this island, one at Kingston and one at 

 Chapelton, about the center of the island, and that there are now being constructed here 

 about a dozen seismometers on an improved principle." 



Colonel George TV. Goethals, chairman and chief engineer of the Isthmian 

 Canal Commission, writes : 



"We have now at Ancon. Canal zone, an observatory equipped with a complete assort- 

 ment of modern, self-recording meteorological instruments, i. e., barograph, air and water 

 thermograph, hydrograph. barograph & poid, triple register (wind direction and velocity, 

 rainfall and sunshine), and the standard instruments necessary properly to correct their 

 records. We expect shortly to erect two horizontal pendulum Bosch-Omori seismo- 

 graphs—one a hundred-kilogram pendulum instrument (tromometer), which will enable 

 us to obtain registered records on smoked paper of all movements of a telluric nature, 

 either seismic or otherwise, near or distant, and also the variations of the vertical line. 

 The magnification is 100, and the period of oscillation of the tromometer can be extended 

 to forty seconds. Attached to this instrument is an air-damping apparatus, by which the 

 oscillations may be reduced, or even rendered aperiodical. Owing to its sensitiveness, 

 this instrument is well adapted to the registration of earth tremors, pulsatory oscilla- 

 tions, and comparatively quick period earthquake vibrations. 



"The proposed new equipment, therefore, will be such as to enable us to make observa- 

 tions in connection with earthquakes, whether of a tectonic nature or produced by vol- 

 canic action, as well as of other physical phenomena, such as earth tremors and pulsa- 

 tions, which may. as premonitory signs, have a bearing on the prediction of earthquakes. 

 We are also prepared to study the relations that may exist between seismic disturbances, 

 pressure, and temperature. 



"While we can not make our studies cover the entire field of seismology, we believe our 

 observations will be of considerable utility in the work that the Geological Society of 

 America has undertaken." 



The chairman of your committee has to report for his own district that, 

 through the efforts of Professor J. B. Woodworth, Harvard University has in- 

 stalled a seismograph which is in active operation, and that money has been 

 given by citizens of Boston whereby another Bosch-Omori instrument has been 

 secured, and plans and drawings are now under consideration with a view to 

 the building of a geophysical observatory near Boston, which will be under the 

 direction of the department of geology of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology. 



T. A. Jaggab, Jr., Chairman. 



The Secretary reported from the Council the constitution of W. B. 

 Clark. H. E. Gregory, C. W. Hayes, J. M. Clarke, and E. 0. Hovey a 

 committee to confer as to details with a Committee of Organization, 

 which had been chosen by certain paleontologists desiring to form a 

 Paleontological Society as a section of and in close affiliation with the 

 Geological Society of America, the Council heartily commending the 

 project. 



