AND VALPARAISO EARTHQUAKKS AND THEIR CAUSP^S. 59 



what a sudden upheaval and a great sea wave may do. "When the 

 great disaster of which I have spoken happened, many feeble 

 persons escaped only because they were not strong enough to get 

 away in boats or retreat to higher ground and were left in the tree 

 tops. 



There are many other incidental questions which are suggested 

 in the interesting paper to Avhich we have listened, Imt I would 

 only ask one question, and that is, whether any observations had 

 been made as to the effect of the San Francisco earthquake on 

 the barometer 1 When the Krakatoa catastrophe occurred the 

 meteorograph at Jeypore, which was imder my care, indicated 

 that a wave passed round the world two or three times. 



Professor Hull, F.R.S. (Secretarj^) — I wish, in seconding the 

 resolution, to be allowed to make a few remarks on the geological 

 aspects of this valuable communication. 



First — I may observe that this earthquake shock of 1906 — 

 though lamentably disastrous to life and property — if it had taken 

 place two centuries ago, would have been passed over as a matter of 

 indifference to the outer world. If there were any inhabitants at 

 all, they would have consisted of a few Indians, to whom the shock 

 would have brought no great terror or loss. The disasters which 

 followed the earthshock of last year w^ere due to the existence of a 

 great city with ail the appliances of modern civilisation. 



Second — The vertical displacement of the ground and rocks on 

 either side of the St. Andreas fault, or fissure, was trifling when 

 compared with that which has taken place in very recent geological 

 times in other parts of the world. For instance, the great fault 

 crossing the Grindelwalcl in Switzerland, which I have myself seen, 

 along which the granitoid rocks are upheaved several thousands of 

 feet, is as recent as the Middle Tertiary or Pliocene period. That 

 of the Arabah Valley in Arabia Petrsea, w^hich has been traced for 

 about 400 miles from the Gulf of Akabah into Syria, has an uplift 

 of about 4,000 feet where it passes along the eastern margin of the 

 Dead Sea and is of the same age ; and, to come nearer home, the 

 fault which bounds the great plain of Cheshire on the east side at 

 the foot of Mowcop, in North Staffordshire, has a displacement of 

 about 3,000 feet. But what is remarkable is, that the two former 



* San Francisco was not occupied by Europeans till the year 1776. 



