406 L. MARTIN ALASKAN EARTHQUAKES OF 1899 



dous destruction of structures, 25,000 buildings being destroyed in the 

 earthquake and fire, with an estimated value of between 139 million and 

 500 million dollars. In the Eiviera earthquake, in 1887, 640 people 

 were killed and over 570 injured, 155 houses were rendered uninhabitable 

 in Mentone, 61 in Nice, and many others elsewhere, so that the property 

 loss was over $5,000,000. Lyell states 60,000 people were killed in six 

 minutes in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, practically the whole city 

 being thrown down. About 20,000 lives were lost in the Calabrian earth- 

 quake of 1688, about 43,000 in 1693, between 32,000 and 60,000 in 1783, 

 800 in 1905, while the loss of life in 1908 was stated as 100,000. 



In contrast with all this, there was no recorded loss of life as a result 

 of the Yakutat Bay earthquakes, and the most serious property damage 

 known, aside from the loss of a rowboat, some tents, provisions, and cloth- 

 ing by the eight prospectors in Disenchantment Bay, was the shifting of 

 the roof of an uninhabited log cabin in outer Yakutat Bay and the 

 cracking of a few chimneys and slight damage to a wharf in Skagway, 

 The great earthquakes of New Madrid, Sonora, South America, and New 

 Zealand, likewise in rather thinly populated districts, would doubtless be 

 more like the Alaskan case in slight damage to the human race. 



In Yakutat Bay lower forms of life, particularly marine animals and 

 plants, were destroyed by millions. Many fish were killed by the shocks 

 or washed up by the water waves. Annual land plants and forest trees 

 were killed by the water waves or by submergence of the coast. Human 

 life, however, was almost unaffected, excepted through nervous strain. 



The Yakutat Bay earthquakes of September, 1899, do not contribute 

 to the problems of warning and safety for the human race during the 

 seismic disturbances accompanying earth movements. They are in the 

 unfortunately small class of world-shaking disturbances of which one 

 may read without turning with a shudder at the loss of human life. 



Evidences of older faulting, older uplifts, older submergences, and 

 older earthquakes in Yakutat Bay lead to the expectation of future earth- 

 quakes there from future earth movements in this growing mountain 

 range. The region has few inhabitants, nor is it likely to be much 

 visited except as its wonderful glaciers (figure 5) attract tourists, espe- 

 cially now that the well known Muir glacier has lost much of its scenic 

 interest. Future earthquakes, therefore, are not likely profoundly to 

 influence life, as would be the case if Yakutat Bay and other parts of 

 Alaska were thickly populated as are such earthquake regions as Japan, 

 India, the East Indies, Asia Minor, the Balkan Peninsula, Italy, Spain, 

 the West Indies, western South America, Mexico, and California, 



