238 EAKTHQUAKES. 



newer mountains apparently indicate that the process of 

 mountain-making is hardly ended. 



Seismic energy in relation to historical time. — 

 The distribution of seismic energy with regard to his- 

 torical time is a subject which has been very carefully 

 examined by Mallet, who collected together a catalogue 

 of between six and seven thousand earthquakes, embraced 

 between the periods B.C. 1606 and A.d. 1850. The earth- 

 quake of B.C. 1606 was on the occasion of the delivery of 

 the law at Mount Sinai. Between B.C. 1 604 and B.C. 1586 

 an earthquake probably occurred in Arabia, when Korah, 

 Dathan, and Abiram were swallow^ed up. Another biblical 

 record is that of B.C. 1566, when the walls of Jericho 

 were overthrown. 



The earliest records from China is in B.C. 595 ; in 

 Japan B.C. 285 ; in India A.D. 894. 



By using the number of earthquakes which have been 

 recorded in each century as ordinates, Mallet constructed 

 a curve, which apparently shows a continual increase in 

 seismic energy, especially during recent times. This, 

 Mallet remarks, contradicts all the analogies of the 

 physics of the globe, and points out that the rapid increase 

 in the number of earthquakes in latter years is chiefly 

 due to the greater number of records which have been 

 made, and the increase of the area of observation. No 

 doubt many of the records made by the ancients have 

 been lost. 



If we compare Mallet's records, as he invites us to do, 

 with the great outlines of human progress, we see that 

 the two increase simultaneously, and we come to the 

 conclusion that, taken as a whole, during the historical 

 period the seismic activity of the world has been tolerably 

 constant. 



These conclusions, based on the evidence at our 



