312 Scientific Intelligence. 
‘part; moreover the body of New Zealand conforms in trend. 
The groups of islands having this nearly common course are parts 
of a great mountain system of the ocean, and of the one prom- 
inent system in the Pacific having a north-northeast direction. 
The length is 1,500 miles, reckoned from Central New Zealand, 
and over 2,000 from its southern end. The whole line may be 
viewed as having been, at the beginning and since, the course of a 
series of fractures, outflows and uplift, and in an important sense, 
a line of common genetic action and results. It is not improbable 
therefore that sympathy should appear between distant parts of 
the line, in fractures, earth-shocks and outflows. 
The Friendly Islands and Charleston are nearly 100 degrees 
of longitude apart, and 50 degrees of latitude; and the approxi- 
mate parallelism of trend in the mountain system of Eastern 
America and that of the New Zealand system in the Pacific, is 
hardly a sufficient reason for simultaneous earth-movements, unless 
the earth is working as a unit in its geographico-geological devel- 
opment. J. D. Dz 
3. The Earthquake in Switzerland.—Professor Fore, the 
meteorologist, of Morges, on the Lake of Geneva, has just issued 
a report on the earthquake of February 23. He classifies the 
shocks under three heads—namely, preparatory shocks, strong 
shocks, and consecutive shocks. It is difficult, in the absence of 
trustworthy data, to indicate the precise locality of the first- 
named, but Switzerland was undoubtedly the region of the 
second; but it was to the third—that is, the consecutive shocks— 
that all the mischief was due. The professor traces the course of 
the phenomenon in Switzerland over a radius of at least four 
hundred square miles. Its force was greater in the southern 
parts of the country than in the north, though the shocks were 
felt throughout Geneva, Berne, Neuchatel, Fribourg, Vaud, 
Valais, and Tessin; and observations go to prove that these 
shocks traveled almost due north and south, although the direc- 
tion of the oscillations does not coincide with this course. The 
oscillations in Switzerland were characterized by their number 
and repetitions. In some localities they were longitudinal; that 
is, running parallel to the meridian; in others they were trans- 
verse, running or flowing from east to west. The vertical move- 
ments were marked by their feebleness where indicated, but in 
the greater part of the territory affected vertical oscillations were 
entirely absent. One of the peculiarities of the oscillations gen- 
erally was the length of duration, which is set down as varying 
from 10 to 30 seconds. But the collected reports prove that the 
mean of these figures more nearly represents the prevailing dura- 
tion. The intensity of the shocks was greater in the central and 
southern areas of the disturbance, and it would seem as if the 
shocks only just failed to attain the necessary strength which 
would have produced disastrous effects. As it was, church bells 
were rung, in some places violently ; windows were rattled, doors 
thrown open, ceilings slightly cracked, and morsels of plaster 
