Correspondence. 201 
the meeting, being usually given by men who are thoroughly familiar 
with the subject down to the most recent developments and who are al- 
so able to impart to it that element of life which is essential in a popu- 
lar address. They are calculated to diffuse a knowledge of science among 
the general public. Prof. John Milne spoke on the subject of earth- 
quakes on which he is a past master. Discarding all other views he fix- 
ed the attention of the house on the modern doctrine that the earth- 
quake is only the result of a slip of the strata along a line of crack or 
fault, which produces a wave or vibration whose emergence at the sur- 
face causes the tremor or the quake. He illustrated his difficult theme 
by many striking examples showing that these waves are transmitted 
not only through the superficial strata but also through the solid globe 
80 that after a cartain distance from the epicentre is reached the vibra- 
tion arrives at all parts of the surface at very nearly the same instant. He 
described the methods of observing earthquakes and very briefly some 
of the instruments employed, and told the audience that from his own 
observations made in England he had announced to the British Associa- 
tion on August .31, 1896, that news would come of a severe earthquake 
in Japan at a certain instant. In due time this prediction was verified, 
the actual time being one minute later than his prediction. 
Passing to submarine disturbances, Mr. Milne mentioned that they 
frequently caused the breakage of the telegraphic cables, and where ex- 
amination was made it was constantly found from soundings, that an 
extensive kuidslide had taken place, burying the wires so that the only 
way of repairing them was by dragging until they broke and abandon- 
ing the buried portion. In one case the depth was increased 200 fathoms 
and in another, three of the Atlantic lines 10 miles apart were broken 
at the same moment showing a slip of 20 metres in length. Prof. Milne 
showed a number of slides, some of which were very striking, as illus- 
trating the mode of destruction .suffered by railroad tracks, girder bridges 
and other structures during an earthquake. He explained the economic 
value of the study and showed how the principles of engineering follow- 
ed in stable countries must be modified in Japan and how by years of 
study he and his colleagues had succeeded in establishing data and lay- 
ing down rules for seismic construction whereby even tall chimney 
stacks can be erected with safety and will sway to and fro without fall- 
ing during a shock. 
Prof. Robert Austin lectured on "Canada's Metals" and enlarged on 
the enormous stores of these which exist in the Dominion. The nickel 
mines of Sudbury can supply the market of the world, and more cheap- 
ly than any other, inasmuch as the copper obtained as a by-product 
pays the cost of the smelting, leaving the other metal as pure profit. 
He showed some striking experiments with the electric furnace in 
which the audience could see projected on the screen such metals as 
gold rapidly fusing and falling in that condition fi-om the ends of the 
bars. 
The presidential address, as might be expected from the well known 
tendency of the author, Sir John Evans, was archfeological in its na- 
