52 G. K. Gilbert—Earthquakes of the Great Basin. 
vicinity were thrown down, and about thirty persons sont their 
lives. In the little town of Lone Pine, numbering some three 
hundred inhabitants, twenty-one were killed by falling valle 
ere was only one violent shock, and the damage was all 
done in a few seconds, but for two months there were occasional 
tremors. Theoretically, the main strain of the earth’s crust 
was relieved at once, but a complete equilibrium was brought 
about more slowly. 
The surviving inhabitants of Lone Pine observed that the 
only houses that remained standing were of wood, and in re- 
building they employed that material exclusively. Such a 
course was natural, but I conceive that their precaution was 
unnecessary. They may, indeed, feel feeble shocks propagated 
from earthquakes centering elsewhere, but in their own locality 
rte accumulated earthquake force is for the present spent, re 
many generations ae aegis ~ before it again manifests 
itself. The old maxim, “Lightning never strikes the same 
spot twice,” is mote A in theory and false in fact; but som si 
thing similar might truly be said about earthquakes. Thes 
which is the focus of an earthquake (of the type here diacdacks 
is thereby exempted for a long time. And conversely, any 
locality on the fault line of a large mountain range, which has 
been exempt from earthquake for a long time, is by so much 
nearer to the date of recurrence—and just here is the applica- 
tion of what I have written. Continuous as are the fault- 
scarps at the base of the Wasatch, there is one place where 
city. From the Warm Springs to Emigration Cafion fault- 
increasing, and some day it will overcome the friction, lift the 
mountains a few feet, and re-enact on a more fearful scale the 
catastrophe of Owens Val e) 
It is useless to ask when ha disaster will occur. Our occu- 
pation of the country has been too brief for us to learn how 
th 
us this, Salt Lake City ‘will have been shaken down, and its 
surviving citizens will have sorrowfally rebuilt it of wood ; ; to 
use a homely figure, the horse will have sates hg the barn 
door, all too late, will have been closed behind 
When the earthquake comes, the severest sine is likely to 
occur along the line of the great fault at the foot of the moun- 
tain. This line follows the upper edge of the upper bench — 
from Big Cottonwood Cation to the rifle targets back of Fort 
Douglass, cutting across each creek just where it issues from 
