THJ MEDITERRANEAN NATl'RALI.ST 
greater surface covered. As already state the 
centre of the present disturbance was very near 
to the town and the motion of the shock felt there 
was precisely the same as the ripples of water just 
referred to. The vibrative waves struck one upon 
the other with great rapidity. Had it been other- 
wise or had the centre been a few miles further off 
not one stone wouid have remained upon the other 
as evidenced by the wholesale destruction in the 
villages where the motion was less rapid, but 
more destructive, from the accelerated and more 
developed waves of force. 
Why certain districts suffered more than others 
from earthquake shocks appears to be entirely 
attributable to the nature of the soil — some tracts 
of ground being practically exempt from their 
effects whilst other are entirely .devastated. It 
would seem as if the shocks pass beneath such a 
district as water passes beneath a bridge hence 
the term of earthquake bridges. When a vibra- 
tive wave passes from one bed of rock to another 
of a -different character a certain portion of the 
wave is reflected while the remainder of it is 
transmitted and refracted, and bridges we may 
conceive of as occurring where the phenomenon of 
total reflection occurs. Many example of this are 
to be found in Zante from the recent shocks espe- 
cially -with reference to the stone walls built round 
fields and vineyards, wherever the subsoil is rocky 
solid and compact, not a stone is out of position 
but on the alluvial and loose soil they appear as 
if they had been subjected to some fierce canno- 
nade. In one large village — Lithakia — the houses 
on the high ground wholly escaped damage, the 
soil being entirely of solid rock — lower down on 
the alluvium and under which the “abyss” runs 
not a house escaped — another very interesting 
fact, confirmed by personal observation, is that, 
wherever houses are situated on the borders of a 
rift, gully or any other steep cutting not the 
slightest damage has occurred, which is also a 
further proof of the surface nature of all earth- 
quakes. 
That the excessive damage done to the island is 
chiefly due to the bad construction of the houses 
is proven beyond doubt. In the village of Kiti 
from whence I have just returned out of 120 hou- 
ses over 100 have been destroyed thrown down in 
Such a way that one can scarcely credit the asser- 
j tion that nobody was killed. I saw one house a 
mass of beams, stones and plaster from which 12 
I people and three cows were dug out untouched 
j and similar instances are cited by the dozen all 
over the island. Still the house- are disgracefully 
constructed and the wonder h how any escaj ed at 
all. That the earthquake was a very severe one 
is perfectly true but I am thoroughly convinced 
that had any attention been paid to the principles 
laid down for the construction of buildings in 
earthquake zones the damage would have been 
extremely insignificant. 
As a proof of this I can cite my own house and 
the ^telegraph office both buildings constructed 
from good materials about sixty years ago and 
with a certain amount of regard to earthquake 
visitations. In my house a little plaster fell from 
the walls in the upper rooms, 50 feet abuve the 
ground but neither a tile nor a stone was thrc u u 
out of position and some idea may be formed of 
the size of the building when I state that the 
hall on the first floor opening into the room.- is 
62 feet long by 20 broad, the rooms averaging 20 
feet by 20. Of course light ornaments were 
thrown down and smashed but there was not the 
least material damage done to the main building — 
the detached kitchen, however, buil: of rubble just 
thrown together suffered severely. The same im- 
munity was fortunately enjoyed by the telegraph 
station a building 70 feet high constructed most 
admirably. IVitn the exception of a dozen tiles 
or so becoming loose and about six square inches 
of plaster fallen from one corner of the upper 
rooms there is not the slightest trace of the earth- 
quake’s passage. Both these houses have light 
compact roofs well bound by iron supports to the 
outer walls which seem to have been built with 
the very best mortar and sand. In both cases 
most of the rooms have the rafters alone for the 
ceiling and in the hall just mentioned there are 
32 of these beams six im lies square. 
In examining the destroyed houses I invariably 
found that the primary cause of their destruction 
was a too heavy or an illproportioned roof which, 
when the vibrative waves struck the building 
crushed down the wretchedly jerry — built walls 
of rubble — with an occasional cemented corner 
stone here and there. The mortar I found to have 
been used most sparingly often in the proportion 
