184 Mr. Forster on Earthquakes — Salisbury. 
ances. * * * The steeper the angle of these irregular- 
ities of the oceans' beds, the more frequent are the earthquake 
shocks." 
It is not the purpose of this notice to discuss the hypothesis 
advanced, but from these citations it is clear that Mr. Forster 
believes earthquakes to be due to the toppling over of unstable 
sub-marine mountaius, or to landslides from their precipitous 
slopes. Landslides from the steep slopes of islands or the main- 
land, would of course produce the same result. 
In support of this hypothesis the following facts are given; 
and it is these which give especial importance to the paper un- 
der review: 
1. On the 26th day of October, 1873, a very violent shock 
of earthquake took place in Zante . "At the moment the shock 
occurred the cable between Zante and Trepito, the landing place 
opposite, broke, and the distance of the break was found to be 
seven miles from the Zante office. 
"When this cable was repaired some time afterwards, it was 
discovered that the break had occurred in a depth of about 2,- 
000 feet of water, where about 1,400 feet originally existed, and 
it was impossible to haul in the broken end, firmly jammed 
down by the mass which had fallen over and upon it; in fact, 
nearly a mile of the cable had to be abandoned for this reason, 
and a fresh piece of that length laid instead. 
2. "In the year 1878" a violent shock of earthquake was felt 
in Messina, extending from the Gulf of Calamata to Navarino, 
and slightly felt in Crete and in Zante. At the same time that 
the shock occurred the cable between Zante and Canea broke at 
a distance of 137 miles from the former island and 101 from 
Canea. It was a peculiar break and all my tests taken to local- 
ize the fault failed to alter the distance; yet when the repairing 
ship tested from the Cretan end the distance appeared to be 139 
and 99 knots respectively. * *" * In the end it turned 
out that the cable had been broken in two different places, * 
* * at the moment the ground fell away, and for a distance 
of about two miles; and so irregular and uneven was the bottom 
then found to be, (between the two breaks) that a detour was 
made and the cable lengthened by five or six miles, to avoid any 
further chances of breakage." 
3. On the 28tli of March, 1885, "a prolonged shock came 
