A Difficult Bit of Rock Climbing 



325 



houses were literally cut in two. The 

 stream of lava had forked about a spur of 

 the mountain, leaving the higher land 

 with its vineyards untouched. The lower 

 land with its town was invaded. There 

 is so little timber in the Italian masonry 

 construction that the uninvaded part of 

 the town was not burned at all. At Otta- 

 jano the roofs fell in under the weight of 

 sand and gravel. The roofs were largely 

 flat or slightly sloping tiled affairs. The 

 ash and lapilli reached a depth of three 

 feet on level surfaces. The roofs carried 

 the walls with them in many cases, but 

 there was no significant earthquake. 

 There was no fire, destructive lightning, 

 nor strong wind. The persons who per- 

 ished were all found in the houses. 



THE CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE 



THE illustrations on the fol- 

 lowing pages picture very 

 vividly the devastation wrought by 

 the earthquake in California and 

 need no further explanation. The 

 Governor of California has ap- 

 pointed a commission to investigate 

 the earthquake and to report how 

 destruction from future earthquakes 

 may be avoided. The commission 

 consists of Messrs G. K. Gilbert, 

 Andrew C. Lawson, George David- 

 son, J..C. Brainier, H. F. Reid, and 

 A. O. Leuschner, all of whom are 

 well-known American geologists. 

 L T ntil the commission reports there 

 is little to add to the explanation of 

 the earthquake given by Mr Fred- 

 erick Leslie Ransome in his article, 

 "The Probable Cause of the San 

 Francisco Earthquake," published 

 in the May number of this Maga- 

 zine. The Japanese government 

 has sent Dr F. Omori, Professor of 

 Seismology in the University of. 

 Tokio and inventor of the seis- 

 mograph, to San Francisco to re- 

 port on the earthquake. 



About 1,400 earthquake shocks 

 are recorded yearly in Japan, but 

 less than 50 of them are sensible. 



where the sole cause of death was en- 

 tombment in the ruins. 



In both these towns suitable rebuilding 

 might avert a similar catastrophe in the 

 future. Arches and domes are the archi- 

 tectural forms best fitted to shed the 

 sand-fall. Rebuilding on higher land and 

 avoidance of the bottoms might do much 

 to protect such a town as Boscotrecase 

 from another attack of lava. 



The Japanese have made systematic 

 experiments to test the resistance of dif- 

 ferent forms of masonry to earthquake 

 shocks. Similar experiments might well 

 be made on volcano-proof construction, 

 if human beings continue to insist on 

 living within the five-mile limit of an 

 active crater. 



Photo by L. H. Hicks, Courtesy of The Mazamas 



A Difficult Bit of Rock Climbing. This perpendicular 



cliff (300 feet in height) is just below the summit of 



Mount Jefferson, middle ridge of the north side 



