THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
‘j.J 1 
nean Three cases where destructive earthquakes 
might be assumedly due to these denudations 
below the surface are worthy of mention. 
On the southern coast of the Gulf of Corinth 
and about 20 miles, from the entrance stands the 
town of Vostizza, noted for its fine currants. It is 
built on the sand hills rabble and loam deposits 
from the denuded mountains above. The port is 
very deep and the shoals each side of it have ap- 
parently been formed by the alluvial dept its, 
swept out into the port by the strong curren , of 
the Katabothra which runs under the town. Ai:er 1 
any strong shock the sea, inside the harbour 
becomes quite muddy and the water supply of the 
town, which is obtained from springs, or from 
this underground river is temporarily cut off. 
This town is periodically destroyed by earth- 
quakes. In Cephalonia we find even a more 
remarkable Katabotki a. Just at the entrance to 
the port of Argostoli a k . ge body of water equal 
in bulk to about a million gallons a day runs into 
a very deep opening in the earth close to, and from 
the sea with a force sufficient to supply the motive 
power to drive two flour mills. 
This body of water apparently goes right under 
and round the island and may have some connection 
with a vast cave also containing water which is to 
be found near Samos opposite Ithaca. During the 
English occupation many barrels of oil were once 
sent into this hole and every measure was taken 
to ascertain if any of them came out into the sur- 
rounding sea but all appear to have been sucked 
down into the Vortex of some mighty whirlpool 
below. It requites very little imagination to con- 
nect this potent factor with the problem of the 
origin of these earthquakes! In Zante we have to the 
south-west of the island and near to the pitch- 
wells — a fathomless pool called the “abyss” the 
water in which is always at one level and is sucked 
into, and under the ground with a strong eddying 
current dragging down in its vortex any floating 
object thrown into it.- From the direction in which 
this KatkaLotlira runs the hollow condition of the 
surrounding soil, and the more pronounced, state of 
the ruins along its assumed course there is no 
doubt but that it is in more or less direct con- 
nection with the fathomless depth already referred 
to in the sea from whence our shocks originate. 
If therefore we are prepared to attribute the 
vibrative waves of earthquakes in non-volcanic 
regions — to a purely mechanical force we have 
abundant material upon which we may base the 
theory I have alluded to and which seems both 
practically and logically proven by actual facts. 
The next point to be considered is that of earth- 
quake motion and its distribution within a small 
area. In many districts shaken by earthquakes 
almost every observer of a shock describes it dif- 
ferently not only in point of strength but also as 
reg . els the direction of the vibrative waves. In 
the recent shocks here, the point from which they 
emanated was too pronounced to admit of any 
doubt as to their direction and the centrum was 
so near the ruined district that the strength was 
equally divided over the whole island except where 
earthquake “bridges ’ exist. The clearest way of 
describing earthquake motion is to compare it to 
the ripples produced on the surface of a pool of 
water when a stone is thrown into it. The first 
ripples are short and sharp and according to the 
.size and bulk of the object thrown into the water 
so is their strength proportionally greater and the 
propagated waves reach further with a slower 
motion until equilibrium is again restored. So it 
is with the mechanical forces which disturb the 
surface of the sea’s bottom. The severity of the 
concussion caused by a might Jy land slip is always 
proportionate to the bulk of the falling mass, the 
depth f its fall, the nature of the matter consti- 
tuting it, and on to which it falls. The acceleration 
of tlio destructive motion of such masses falling 
under water would be greatly ' augmented also by 
the displacement of the water itself. If to this be 
added a subsidence as the cause or the effect of the 
land-slip the ‘many small shocks preceeding and 
following the great ones can easily be accounted for. 
Slow earthquakes are due to the slow movement 
of falling masses — velocity being given when the 
fall is rapid. 
Of the surface nature of earthquakes we have 
abundant evidence. Neither in the present case 
nor in even more severe shocks have the tall Ve- 
netian towers which occupy a comparatively small 
space suffered whereas low outspreading buildings 
have been levelled with the ground. In the first 
instance the “wave” would have less surface on 
which to propagate its motion whilst in the second 
instance this would have been accelerated by thq 
