260 EARTHQUAKES. 



A glance at this table shows that for most countries in 

 the northern hemisphere the rule that there are gene- 

 rally more earthquakes during the winter months — that 

 is, from October to March — holds good. For countries 

 which lie comparatively near to the Equator, and also for 

 those countries in the southern hemisphere, the rule is 

 not so clear. When examining this table it must be 

 remembered that it does not enable us to judge of the 

 relative frequency of earthquakes in different countries, 

 inasmuch as the periods over which the records were taken 

 are different in different cases. 



To the above table might be added the records of 

 P. Merian, who examined the earthquakes felt in Basle 

 up to 1831. As a result he found that during the winter 

 months eighty shocks had been felt, whilst during the 

 summer only forty. Taking the records for the two 

 hemispheres from 1850-1857, compiled by Kluge,' in the 

 northern hemisphere we have in the months between 

 October and March 948 shocks against 862 in the re- 

 mainder of the year. In the same months in the southern 

 hemisphere we have for the corresponding periods the 

 numbers 337 and 300, and thus both hemispheres would 

 appear to follow the same rule. If, however, we examine 

 the table we see that the two seasons are not so pro- 

 nounced for the southern hemisphere as they are for the 

 northern, and that there may be two or three periods of 

 maximum disturbance as has been previously indicated. 



Earthquakes and the planets and meteors, — Just as 

 the moon and the sun may exert an attractive influence 

 upon the earth and cause earthquakes to predominate at 

 certain seasons rather than at others, several investigators 

 of seismic phenomena have thought that the planets might 

 act in a similar manner. 



^ Kluge, Uehcr die UrsacJieti, &c., p. 74. 



