174 REPORT OF THE CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE COMMISSION. 
In the press-room referred to, a bond fire extinguisher was apparently thrown or whirled 
from a southeast corner shelf out near the center of the room, and right side up. This would 
bear out the idea of a twist or double movement contraclockwise, apparently experienced 
by several people, myself included. 
There are a number of fissures in the mud flats in and near the Noyo River and Puddin 
Creek. The boys say there are cracks in the streams. There are cracks in the less solid 
rocks along the ocean shore line. 
(Eri Higgins.) My house faces west. The east part was moved 6 inches south, 
breaking water and sewer connections. ‘The west end of the house did not move. Goods 
on shelves were thrown from the north side, but not from the south side. All brick build- 
ings in town went down except two, and these were damaged. 
The above facts indicate that the destructive effects were as severe at Fort Bragg as 
at any other point within the zone of high intensities, but it is necessary to know some- 
thing of the situation of the town. Experience elsewhere in the zone of destructive effects 
has shown that much damage may be caused to buildings even at considerable distance 
from the locus of disturbance, if they are upon soft alluvial bottoms. An inquiry was 
accordingly directed to Mr. Barth as to the situation of the town and its underlying for- 
mations. In response to this inquiry, Mr. Barth replies as follows: 
Fort Bragg is mostly on the first terrace. The bluffs rise about 40 to 50 feet above the 
sea. Then the terrace has a gentle slope thru the town up to the second terrace (a rise of 
60 to 75 feet above cliffs), which begins about where the built-up part ends. There is no 
distinct line of division, but a more rapid rise for a few hundred feet marks the second terrace. 
It is about 0.25 mile on an average from the bluffs to where the town really begins, 7.e. 
going eastward; and the town has a width of a little more than 0.25 mile, from here to the 
second terrace, still going eastward. The sea-cliffs are rough, rocky, perpendicular walls, or 
nearly that, for several miles, with many bold, rocky, tooth-like sea-worn isles skirting them. 
About half a mile north of town, Puddin Creek, and about a mile south of town the Noyo 
River, have cut their way thru rather deep canyons to the sea. While the volume of water 
in the latter is larger, the narrow valleys of the two do not differ much. Narrow strips of 
tillable land skirt them. The two almost meet about 3 miles east of the bluffs, where there 
is a narrow divide and where the third terrace appears to begin. There is a gradual rise 
from the second to the third terrace. 
The surface soil upon which Fort Bragg is built consists of a sandy loam, rather sandy 
and yet pretty firm. The laying of sewer pipes 4 to 6 feet deep reveals more sand below, 
of a dark yellow color. At the bluffs or cliffs there is from 10 to 15 feet of soil. At one 
point where the second terrace begins (here Puddin Creek curves in close to town), solid 
rock comes close to the surface. 
A well about 500 or 600 feet north of the business center reached rock at 30 feet. One 
of the brick buildings, a 3-story hotel which was so badly injured that it had to be taken 
down, stood about 100 feet from this well. Another well, 0.25 mile north of the business 
center, obtained water in sand at a depth of 22 feet without reaching rock. 
The town is comparatively level from north to south, except for a small valley — hardly 
that — a 0.25 mile wide vale, running down thru the mill yards to the sea at the point where 
the harbor indents the coast. 
It is clear from this description that the town of Fort Bragg is on a well-defined wave- 
cut terrace carved out of the hard sandstones which prevail along this part of the coast, 
and that the terrace is mantled with Quaternary marine sands varying in thickness 
from 10 or 15 feet at the brink of the present sea-cliffs to 30 feet in other parts, and 
tapering to nothing at the rear of the terrace. It therefore seems to be a fair inference 
that the destruction experienced at Fort Bragg is not due, except to a very limited 
extent, to those causes which work exceptional damage in the water-saturated alluvial 
bottoms; but that it is referable to the high intensity of the shock, thereby implying 
proximity of the town to the fault. 
(W. T. Fitch.) ——There were several small cracks across the roads a few miles south 
of Fort Bragg; and back in the hills there were more and larger ones. In the bed of 

the 'Ten-Mile River, 10 miles north of Fort Bragg, where level surfaces occurred before, _ 
