CLIMATE. 41 
of the shocks are so slight as to pass unnoticed by a great 
majority of the people; and there are persons who have re- 
sided six or eight years in San Francisco, and many who have 
resided ten years in other parts of the state, and say they have 
never felt an earthquake. No person has been hurt, nor has 
any strongly-built house been injured, by an earthquake in 
California, north of latitude 35°, since the American conquest. 
Several brick walls have been cracked in San Francisco, but 
they were weak structures, built on “made ground,” and 
would perhaps have cracked by settling, of their own weight. 
On three or four occasions, large four-story houses have been 
so much shaken, that the inmates have run out in great alarm ; 
but on examination it was found that the buildings were unin- 
jured, even in the slightest perceptible manner. 
On one such occasion, a friend of mine, who thought his life 
in great danger, and ran to save it, observed before he left his 
room that the water was splashed out of his basin by the 
movement of the house. The basin was of earthen ware, about 
fifteen inches in diameter at the top, six inches deep, half full 
of water, and it stood on an ordinary wash-stand. He sup- 
posed that, with another such a shock or two, the building 
must be in ruins; and he was very much astonished the next 
morning to find that there was not the slightest crack in the 
plastering. His room was in the fourth story of a brick hotel. 
It seems that the whole building had moved together. 
The fear of earthquakes prevents the erection of high struc- 
tures for show; and, for this reason, there is not a tall steeple 
in San Francisco. The largest churches have been commenced 
on such a plan that they might be crowned with lofty spires, 
but it was thought more prudent to leave them with low tow- 
ers. The same motive induces many wealthy families to reside 
in wooden houses, which are considered better fitted to resist 
the shocks of earthquakes. These wooden houses, it must be 
kept in mind, are not “framed” with mortices and tenons, as 
large wooden houses are usually erected in the Atlantic states, 
but are ‘Chicago frames,” held together with nails. This 
3* 
