same rock-mass, the species of minerals which are present and their proportions to one another may, and, indeed, often do, vary from point to point. Nor does minute structure, though affording admirable criteria for distinguishing certain types of rock, supply a sufficiently definite means of diagnosis for all the different varieties which Occur. A system of "lithology" may, indeed, be devised, if we confine our attention to the hand-specimens in our museums; but it breaks down the moment that we attempt to apply it in our researches in the field.

I have long felt assured that all attempts at a nomenclature and classification of rocks must, for the reasons just stated, be regarded as tentative and provisional only; but the careful study of rock-types is nevertheless bringing to light a number of facts calculated to profoundly modify mineralogical no less than geological thought and specula

tion.

Petrology forms the link between mineralogy and geology, just as palæontology does between biology and geology. Mineralogy has justly been styled the alphabet of petrology; but if the orthography and etymology of the language of rocks lie in the province of the mineralogist, its syntax and prosody belong to the realm of the geologist. In that language, of which the letters are mineral species and the words are rock-types, I am persuaded that there is written for us the whole story of terrestrial evolution.

Petrology, it is clear, could make but little progress until the improvement of microscopic methods enabled us to make accurate determinations of the minerals in a rock, even when these are present as the most minute particles. The characteristic peculiarities of the different rock-forming minerals, so carefully studied by Zirkel, their accurate optical diagnosis, at which Rosenbusch has laboured with so much success, these with the microchemical methods of Knop, Bofický, Streng, and Behrens, and the pyro-chemical method of Szabó, have already done much to render exact our methods of recognising the minerals in a rock. The contrivances, for which we are principally indebted to the French petrographers, for effecting the isolation of the minerals in rocks, so that they may be submitted to accurate chemical analysis, enable us in cases of difficulty or doubt to confirm or check the results of our microscopical studies.

But there is at present, perhaps, a tendency to confound the end with the means in such researches as these. When all the varieties of minerals in a rock have been correctly identified, the work of the petrologist is not ended; on the contrary, it is only just begun.

The relationship of the several minerals in a rock to one another, the discrimination between such as are original and those of secondary origin, and the recognition among the former of the essential, as distinguished from those that are accessory or accidental,-these are problems of even greater importance than the exact determination of the species or varieties to which each belongs. In not a few rocks it can be demonstrated that every one of its present mineral constituents is different from those of which it was originally made up; in some cases, indeed, it may be shown that the recombination of the elements of the rock into fresh mineral aggregates has taken place again and again. As well might we try to give a rational account of our English speech without taking into account the series of changes through which it has passed in its evolution from the Anglo-Saxon dialects, as to explain the nature of a rock without studying the influence upon it of the forces by which it has gradually acquired its present characters.

With respect to the geographical distribution of the different mineral species, many suggestive observations have been made. Some, like the feldspars, the pyroxenes and the olivines, appear to be ubiquitous in our earth's crust, and even make their appearance again in those bodies of extra-terrestrial origin-the meteorites. Others,

like leucite, nepheline, hauyn, sodalite, and melilite, are exceedingly abundant in certain areas of the earth's surface, while they appear to be wholly wanting in others.

Still more remarkable are the relations which are found to exist between the types of rocks occurring in different geographical areas. The study of this subject is leading us to the recognition of the fact that there are distinct petrological provinces. In closely adjoining areas-such as Hungary and Bohemia, for example-widely different types of rock have been erupted during the same geological period; and this is a fact not less striking and significant than that of the meeting of two perfectly distinct biological provinces along a line which traverses the Malayan archipelago. It cannot be doubted that the prosecution of this hopeful branch of study-the geographical distribution of minerals and rocks-will lead us to results of the highest interest and value.

That there will be shown to be a distribution of rocks in time, as well as in space, I am perfectly prepared to believe. I cannot but think, however, that some of the generalisations on this subject which have been hazarded are somewhat premature. To a geologist (especially one belonging to the school of Lyell) it is equally difficult to conceive that there should be a broad distinction between the metamorphic rocks of Archæan and postArchæan age respectively, as that the pre-Tertiary volcanic rocks should be altogether different from those of Tertiary and recent times.

The great object of al! our studies--concerning the morphology, the physiology, and the chorology-of the mineral kingdom, ought to be to arrive at definite ideas concerning its aetiology; the causes by which the existing forms, capabilities, and positions of minerals and rocks have been determined.

While the fossils contained in rock-masses afford us the means for determining the date of their origin, the careful study of the minerals which they include may enable us to unravel the complicated series of changes through which they have passed since their first formation.

Eighteen years ago, when seeking to show how the origin of a particular rock might be elucidated by a combination of studies in the field, in the chemical laboratory, and by the aid of the microscope, I ventured to offer to this Society some general remarks on this subject. As it has been my constant endeavour since that time to apply the principles then enunciated in the case of rocks of more complicated character and more recondite origin, I may perhaps be forgiven for repeating the words I then used. Every rock since its first formation has undergone and it still is undergoing a constant series of internal changes, the result of the action of different causes, as heat, pressure, solution, the play of many chemical affinities, and of crystallographic and other molecular forces, causes insignificant perhaps in themselves, but capable under the factor time of producing the most wonderful transformations. The geologist is called upon to unravel the complicated results, to pronounce what portion of the phenomena presented by a rock is due to the forces by which it was originally formed, and what must be referred to subsequent change; to discriminate the successive stages of the latter and to detect their various causes; in short, to trace the history of a rock from its deposition to the present moment."

Dr. Wadsworth has well characterised the changes which take place in rock-masses as due to the tendency of unstable mineral combinations to pass into stable ones. It must be remembered, however, that stability is a relative term, and that the arrangement of molecules which is stable under one set of conditions becomes unstable under another set. As by the internal movements and the external denudation of the earth's crust, the conditions under which rock-masses exist are undergoing slow but

continual change, new adjustments of the molecular structure of the rocks are at once necessitated and brought about.

In attempting to reason as to the original conditions under which a rock-mass must have been formed, it is of great importance to avoid those sources of error which exist in rocks that have undergone much secondary alterajon. Such rocks abound in, though they are not necessarily confined to, the older geological formations; and it is among the younger and fresher rocks, therefore, that we may most hopefully seek the key to many petrological problems.

If, for example, we concentrate our attention upon the more recent and less altered igneous rocks, it becomes clear that the degree of crystallisation displayed by them has depended on the slowness with which consolidation has taken place, and that this has in turn been determined by the depth from the surface at which they have been formed. In this way, by the study of igneous rockmasses in Scotland and in Hungary, I was able to show that there is a perfect gradation from highly crystalline rocks-granites, diorites, and gabbros-into the ordinary volcanic types-rhyolites, andesites, and basalts, respectively-and from the latter into the various kinds of volcanic glass. These conclusions have been confirmed by subsequent investigations like those of Hague and Iddings in the Comstock region, and of Lotto in Elba. Further and more recent researches have enabled me to show that certain types of structure have been determined in rocks, according to the more or less perfect absence of all movement within them during their consolidation.

Very remarkable, indeed, are the internal changes which take place in rock-masses when they are submitted to those powerful stresses which result from the movements that occur during mountain-making; and the full explanation of these is perhaps the most difficult problem which still confronts the geologist.

It was long ago asserted by Scrope and Darwin that the solid rock-masses of the globe, under such conditions as these, must have actually flowed, like the viscous lavas of the rhyolitic series. These geologists were even able to show that the separation and disposition of the crystalline elements in such lavas present the closest analogy with what is seen in the crystalline schists and gneisses of greatly disturbed areas.

Since these early researches, which were principally based on the study of rocks in the field, aided only by the pocket-lens, three classes of researches have served to deepen our insight into the methods by which the schistose and gneissose rocks must have been produced.

In the first place, the experiments of MM. Tresca and Daubreé have shown that solid matter under enormous pressure behaves like a viscous substance, its whole internal structure exhibiting evidence of the flowing movements to which it has been subjected.

In the second place, the studies of M. Spring have established the fact that both paramorphic change and direct chemical reaction may result from simple pressure. Thus the unstable monoclinic form of sulphur, by a pressure of 5000 atmospheres, was at ordinary temperatures converted instantly into the stable rhombic form, a transformation accompanied by change of density and of many other physical properties. Still more striking is the case of the unstable, yellow, rhombic, mercuriciodide, which, by simple rubbing with a hard substance, passes into its stable, red, tetragonal allomorph. It is instructive to notice that the same change in both instances appears to take place spontaneously" after a sufficient interval of time; or, in other words, small variations in temperature, pressure, and other surrounding conditions are capable, if sufficient time be allowed, of bringing about the same result as more intense pressure applied suddenly. That the similar paramorphic change of pyroxene into hornblende, which is so frequently

66

exemplified in the earth's crust, is sometimes the result of intense pressure, and at other times follows from the repeated slight alteration of conditions during long periods of time, we have, I believe, abundant evidence. But the experiments of M. Spring that prove that chemical reactions can result directly from pressure are of even greater interest to the geologist. By submitting mixed powders to intense pressure, he succeeded in producing metallic alloys and various binary compounds, and also in bringing about double decomposition between many salts. That similar reactions between the complicated silicates which form the minerals of rocks have resulted from the enormous pressures to which they have been subjected, we have the most ample proof. Thus in rocks where such pressure has just begun to act, such as the "flaser gabbros," wherever the unstable olivine is in contact with the almost equally unstable anorthite, chemical reactions have been set up by the pressure, and these have resulted in the formation of zones of enstatite and anthophyllite, hornblende and biotite, which have been so well described by Torneböhm, Bonney, Adams, and Williams. Provided with the clue supplied by these results, we find little difficulty in going one step further. When the pressure has been still more intense, as in mountain-making movements, reactions are set up among all the minerals of the rock-mass; the elements of which it is composed, set free from their old engagements, enter into new alliances, and the result is the formation of a completely new set of crystallised minerals.

The third class of researches, destined, as I believe, to remove our difficulties in explaining the origin of the schistose and gneissose rocks, are those already alluded to as having been undertaken with the microscope. As yet the details of such changes have only been explained in the case of some of the simpler examples; but I am convinced that the persevering application of the same methods in the field and the laboratory will result in the removal of difficulties that now seem to be absolutely insurmountable.

Some observers in this country have been led to infer that the recrystallisation of rock-masses under pressure has in all cases been preceded by their pulverisation. Of this, I confess that I can find no evidence. That near great faults of all kinds, this reduction of rocks to powder does take place, we find abundant proof; but the evidence also points to the conclusion that such rock-crushing, as distinct from rock-flowing, is in every case local and exceptional.

There is another and totally different series of changes which takes place in rocks, when, brought near to the surface by denudation, they are exposed to the action of water, oxygen, carbonic acid, and other atmospheric agents. The breaking-up of the alkaline silicates and the deposition of secondary silica, the formation of the zeolites, the epidotes, the chlorites, and serpentine, the resolution of crystallised minerals into the isotropic mixtures, and the recrystallisation of these in new forms, all offer problems of the highest interest to the geologist.

I may venture, in drawing these remarks to a close, to indicate another point of analogy between the three natural-history sciences. It is found in the circumstance that experimental verifications of our conclusions are often difficult, if not actually impossible.

We must be content to reason from the proved variability of the existing forms of plants and animals as to the possibility of the production in time of new species. And in the same way, with our limited command of heat, pressure, and especially of time, we can scarcely hope to originate the exact counterparts of the various minerals and rocks of our earth's crust.

We may nevertheless point with satisfaction to what, in spite of such difficulty, has already been accomplished in this interesting field of research. The honour of having

pushed these researches to such successful issues belongs chiefly to the chemists, mineralogists, and geologists of France. To the labours of Senarmont, Daubrée, and a host of other workers, we owe the artificial production of a very large number of the minerals of our globe; while the ingenious experiments of Fouqué and Michel Lévy have resulted in the formation of many rocks differing in no essential particulars from those which have been produced by natural agencies.

In the prosecution of his various researches the importance and value of exact mineralogical knowledge to the geologist is becoming every day more apparent. The temporary estrangement between the cultivators of mineralogy and geology is now, we may hope, for ever at an end; very heartily, indeed, do geologists recognise and welcome the aid of their brethren the mineralogists. But if it be confessed that the benefits, past and prospective, conferred on geological science by mineralogy are vast and even incalculable, it must also be admitted that the debt is amply repaid by the beneficial influence which is being exercised in turn upon mineralogy by geology.

Some time ago a distinguished mineralogist asked me if I did not find the ordinary text-books of his science but little calculated to arouse the interest or excite the enthusiasm of students. I am sure that the energy of my assent must at least have assured my friend of the strength of my convictions on the subject.

Too long, indeed, has the accumulated mass of mineral lore recalled the grim vision of the seer of Chebar. In that gruesome valley the wail of the student, "the bones are very dry," has mingled with the sigh of the teacher,

Can these bones live?" But now from the four winds of heaven come the constructive ideas of many mindsfrom Scandinavia and from France, from Germany and from the United States-and in obedience to this influence behold "a great shaking" in the formless mass. Scattered facts, isolated observations, imperfect generalisations, and tentative hypotheses are falling together "bone to his bone," and are building up a sound body of mineralogical knowledge; and into this the spirit of geological thought entering, mineralogy shall stand forth a living science.

DR. WILLIAM TRAILL, OF WOODWICK1 THE

'HE death of this assiduous student of natural history merits more than a passing notice, since there are few surgeons who did more for the advancement of Eastern conchology than he; while his researches on the antiquities of his native county (Orkney) also claim attention. His whole career, indeed, as in the case of many an Eastern surgeon, illustrates the wisdom of placing both natural history and botany on the curriculum of every medical student.

Dr. Traill was the eldest son of Mr. Traill, of Westness, Rousay, Orkney, and he was born in Kirkwall on September 8, 1818. He proceeded to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine at the age of sixteen, and while there he had the advantage of the direction and advice of his uncle, the late Prof. Traill, who held the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence. Young Traill proved an apt student, and showed from the first a strong liking for natural history. This was fostered by his uncle (whose collection of snakes, now in the Museum of Science and Art, was well known to naturalists), as well as by his pursuits during the holidays

splendid field thus opened up to the young naturalist stirred all his energies into activity, and he studied and collected various groups, but especially the land-shells of Madras. His early studies on the shores of Orkney had given him a predilection for this department, and he remained faithful to it throughout life. Thus, when shortly afterwards called to serve in China, he began the collection of those beautiful specimens of Eastern shells now so well known in many collections. His opportunities were further extended by a residence of some years at Singapore, and afterwards at Malacca and other stations. He returned to England in 1854, and his collections were much admired, both as regards the beauty of the specimens and the number of examples of each species. His acquaintance with Dr. Knapp, a retired army surgeon, and also well known as a malacologist, gave a great impetus to his studies, as also did his association with Andrew Murray, Robert Gray, Dr. Howden, Wyville Thomson, Foster Heddle, James Cunningham, Patrick Dalnahoy, and R. Greville.

His return-voyage to India in 1856 gave him an oppor tunity of examining the pteropods and other pelagic mollusks, and his observations, with four plates and a chart, were communicated by Sir Walter Elliott to the Madras Journal, then edited by his friend Dr. Cleghorn. His preparations of the delicate glassy shells of the Thecosomatous forms was remarkable. He also described some rare species, observed certain peculiarities in their structure, and made comparisons between the velum of the young Cypræa and the epipodia of the pteropods. His collection of Eastern mollusks was largely increased during his second period of duty, so that it became celebrated for certain rare types, such as Rostellaria rectirostris, Trochus guilfordii, Trochus imperialis, &c. He also added largely to Prof. Traill's collection of snakes formerly

alluded to.

On retiring from active duty he settled at St. Andrews, and at once took an active interest in the University Museum and Literary and Philosophical Society, of which latter he was a Vice-President at his death. He spent much of his time in arranging the Mollusca in the Museum, and he enriched the collection by many interesting and rare types. In his annual trips to his estate in Orkney he also made researches on the antiquities and geology of the district, and these he embodied in papers communicated to the Edinburgh Antiquarian Society, and to the Society at St. Andrews. Amongst these papers are the following:- "Results of Excavations at the Broch of Burrian, Orkney," two plates and woodcuts; "Notice of Excavations at Stenabeck, Orkney," with woodcuts; "On Submarine Forests in Orkney"; "On the Picts' Houses of Skerra Broc"; "On the Recurrence of Boulder-Clay in Orkney”; “Notice of the Boulders in North Ronaldshay," &c.

His knowledge of botany also enabled him to acclimatise various plants in Orkney, such as Phormium tenax, various Veronicas, the Manuka (Capt. Cook's sea-plant), the Japanese Euonymus, and others.

Dr. Traill was a man of refined and cultivated mind, genial but unobtrusive, and had a large circle of friends. He enjoyed good health till eighteen months ago, when the first symptoms of the disease which ultimately proved fatal appeared. W. C. M.

THE EARTHQUAKE

havoc in the Riviera during the last week. Although

After graduating in 1841, he proceeded to India as a surgeon in the East India Company's service. The

Abstract of Paper read at the Literary and Philosophical Society, St. Andrews, January 21, 1887.

it is too early to attempt to give a complete account of what has happened, the leading facts, so far as they are of scientific interest, are well summed up in the following report, issued by Father Denza, of the Montcalieri Observatory :

"(1) The earthquake in our region has had nearly the

same effect as those on November 28, 1884, and September 5, 1886. In length it extended to the east along a line leaving the plains of Lombardy at Lomellina, and passing by the district of Alessandria to the Riviera di Levanto, and westward over all the Western Alps, proceeding towards Switzerland as far as Geneva and beyond, and to Paris and Corsica. The telluric movement proceeded from the Lepontine Alps on the north to the Gulfs of Lyons and Genoa on the south, extending, but more feebly, through Tuscany to Rome.

"(2) The movement had its greatest intensity in Liguria, in Southern France, and in Piedmont, where it shook the whole of our plain, and penetrated into all the Maritime, Cottian, Graian, Pennine, and Lepontine Alps.

(3) This time the centre of the strongest intensity was in the Gulf of Genoa, along the line dividing the place where the Apennines join the Alps, and extending from Savona to Mentone. It was within this space that people lost their lives in several localities, such as Savona, Noli, and Mentone, and everywhere as far as Marseilles there were numerous disasters and buildings thrown down. The movement of the soil, not so violent, but equally disastrous, spread over the mountainous country which extends from the Altare Pass to Millesimo, Mondovi, and the neighbouring regions. The shock was severe, but it did no considerable damage, in a portion of the province of Coni, as also in the provinces of Alessandria and Turin, it being very intense on Mont Cenis. It was slighter in the plains and in the valleys of the province of Novara. "(4) In the places where the earthquake was most intense the principal shocks were three in number, and with a slight difference, depending probably on the difference of clocks, correspond to the times indicated by the seismic instruments of our Observatory—namely, the first at 6.22 a.m., the second at 6.31, and the third at 8.53. In the places near the centre of motion slight shocks occurred at intervals all through the day. The severest and most terrible shock was the first, which was undulatory in several places, oscillatory, and perhaps rotatory. It was several times prolonged and accentuated. Here at Montcalieri, as at Turin and elsewhere, it had three principal repetitions, plainly evidenced by the courses traced by our registering seismograph. These augmentations of intensity were mistakenly regarded by some as so many distinct shocks.

"(5) The dominant direction of the first undulatory shock was from west to east, with slight deviations at intervals from west and north-west to east and south-east, and with oscillatory and very slight vibrations. The two other shocks were also undulatory, and the last was rather more intense than the second, btt without reaching the intensity of the first. The second and third had about the same direction as the first.

"(6) The earthquake in places where it was severe and very severe was accompanied by rumblings. I may add, in conclusion, that about 2 o'clock this (Thursday) morning our most delicate seismic instruments signalled very slight fresh shocks, undulatory, and from north-west to south-west."

The fullest and most accurate details as to the successive shocks have come from the more important towns in the western Riviera. Mr. W. J. Lewis, writing to us from the Hôtel des Iles Britanniques, Mentone, on Saturday, the 26th of February, says that some slight vibrations seem to have been felt there about midnight and 3 a.m. before the great shock. "This last," he continues, occurred apparently a few minutes before six, just as day was dawning." He was roused from sleep by being violently jolted in bed, which was being shaken with great violence. At the same instant he heard loud noises of apparently cracking walls and ceilings, and the rattle of falling plaster and breaking glasses. "I did not," says Mr. Lewis, "instantly realise my position, but had time

to consider what was going on, and to conclude that, if the house collapsed under the shock, escape was hopeless, and that there was nothing to be done. This may possibly have taken ten seconds. Needless to say, that when the motion ceased and I found myself unharmed, I was up, seized my warmest clothing, and was down in the garden in less than a minute. The daily Press will have sufficiently described the scenes which have occurred throughout the Riviera. The second shock, of considerable, but much less, force, occurred about ten minutes later. I observed, within a few minutes of this that the hall clock marked 6.15, local time, corresponding to 5.54 a.m., so that I should be inclined to place the second shock at 6.10. A third shock of about the same intensity as the second occurred between 8.30 and 8.45. This last threw down bricks, tiles, &c., which had been displaced by the first shock, and raised the panic to the greatest height."

According to Mr. Lewis, the early reports of the disaster at Mentone were much exaggerated, but the truth, he says, is bad enough. "The large hotels, especially those in high situations, seem to have suffered least. The whole of the East Bay and the old town have escaped practically unharmed. The greatest damage has occurred to two-storied buildings placed on the alluvial soil in the comparatively level part lying along the sea, and in the valleys of the Carrei and Borrigo, embracing the main portion of the modern town of the West Bay. Here the relation with the foundation is well marked in the case of two equally well-built houses not more than 300 yards apart, viz. St. John's Parsonage and the House of Rest. The former is in the valley, and the foundations were a source of great trouble at the time of building. It is very much shattered. The other is built on a rock, and has escaped uninjured. Within a radius of a quarter of a mile of the station the main destruction has occurred. But the houses most wrecked-some score or more-show most conclusively bad building. The large hotels in this injured area-the Iles Britanniques, National, Orient, Mediterranée, des Colonies, &c.,-most of which are four to five stories high, have suffered injury to lathe and plaster, but in few places are the main walls seriously damaged. In the case of these high buildings the intention of raising them to such a height necessitated a firm and solid foundation. I have noticed that the walls in a part of this hotel at a height of six stories have on the top floor suffered no visible damage. In the same way Monte Carlo, built on rocky ground, has escaped uninjured.”

Writing from Nice, a correspondent of the Times, signing himself" Commander, R. N.,” says that, on Wednesday morning, about six o'clock, he was awakened by an extraordinary commotion so unaccountable that for a moment he thought an escaped lunatic was shaking the bed in a maniacal outburst of fury. Running to the window, he saw that the shock must have been very severe, "for everywhere the streets were strewn with fragments of cornices, mouldings, chimney-pots; while many houses exhibited dangerous-looking cracks and rents in the walls of the upper stories. Another shock as violent as the first must inevitably have been followed by the downfall of many buildings. Fortunately, however, none of the succeeding shocks at all approached the first in violence." Another correspondent of the Times—“ C. E. de M."-writes from Nice, that he was awakened shortly after 6 a.m. by "a tremendous vibration, which shook the whole house, a large hotel, from top to basement. The bed rocked and swayed violently to and fro like a hammock set swinging, and great masses of plaster fell from the ceiling and walls in every direction, strewing the room with débris, while the paper was literally stripped off the walls, and every second the whole hotel appeared as if it must topple over. . . . At 8.30 a.m. another shock, though of less violence, seemed to complete the reign of terror which had now set in."

At Cannes Sir Theodore Martin noted that the first of

a series of shocks began at five minutes after six (Cannes time). "No premonitory warning was given, and there was none of that rumbling noise which frequently accompanies earthquakes. The sky was without a cloud, and the first rose of dawn' had just begun to show itself in the east. The air was still and fresh, and not a leaf stirred on mimosa or eucalyptus. The trembling, beginning somewhat gently at first, like that produced by the passage of a heavy railway train, grew rapidly more and more marked. . . . The convulsion lasted for fully a minute, and the oscillation was from east to west. A second but slight shock, some minutes afterwards, did not tend to diminish the apprehension caused by the first. So far as I can learn, few of the thousands who fill the hotels remained in their rooms, the great majority finding their way, some in the scantiest of raiment, into the adjoining gardens. The first alarm was beginning to pass off when, about half-past eight, a third shock was felt. This did not last above fifteen seconds, but while it lasted it was very severe, shaking the floors and moving the furniture in the same way, but in a less degree than the first shock. The air continued calm as before, and the whole sky was flooded with sunshine."

It will be observed that Sir Theodore Martin describes the direction of the oscillation at Cannes as from east to west. Another correspondent of the Times says that at Antibes the undulations were "undoubtedly from west to east." At Toulon, where there were two violent shocks about six o'clock, the undulations were also from west to east. On the other hand, at Turin, where there were three shocks in the space of seventeen seconds, the second shock, which was by far the strongest, had a direction from north-east to south-west.

At Marseilles two smart shocks were felt about 6 a.m., and a third at 8.30 a.m. They lasted about fifteen seconds each, and caused fissures in several houses. At Nîmes some windows were shattered, and the clocks stopped; and like results were produced at Grenoble. At Avignon three shocks were felt between 6 and 8 o'clock a.m., and the first shock was violent enough to awake all the inhabitants. Slight shocks were felt at Lyons.

It was in the towns and villages of the Italian Riviera that the earthquake produced its most desolating effects. Diano Marina was utterly destroyed. At the first shock, about 6 o'clock, the inhabitants of this place rushed into the streets half dressed. Then came a more fearful shock. A frightful cracking noise was heard as far as the beach, and the houses fell in, burying the greater number of those who had lived in them. The results at Diano Castello, a mile and a half off, were also very appalling, and at Bajardo more than 200 persons were killed in the church. The full extent of the calamity which so suddenly overtook these and other places in the same district cannot even yet be accurately determined. The following is the official list of dead and wounded:-Alassio, 3 dead, 8 wounded; Albenga, 30 wounded; Albissola, 3 dead, 12 wounded; Bajardo, 230 dead, 30 wounded; Bussano, 80 dead, 27 wounded; Castellaro, 41 dead, 65 wounded; Ceriana, 5 dead, 12 wounded; Diano Castello, 35 dead, 10 wounded; Diano Marina, 180 dead, 65 wounded; Montalto Ligure, 1 dead, 3 wounded; Noli, 16 dead, 12 wounded; Oneglia, 23 dead, about 150 wounded; Pompeiana, 5 dead, 7 wounded; Porto Maurizio, 1 dead, 10 wounded; Savona, 11 dead; Taggia, 8 dead, 14 wounded; Triora, 4 dead, 9 wounded.

All over Switzerland the earthquake was felt, more or less, and the oscillations are said to have been from north to south. Dr. A. Riggenbach, Assistant Astronomer at the Basle Observatory, writes to us that some shocks occurred there. The two clocks of the Basle Observatory, and the two regulators of the public electric dials, the principal astronomical clock of Knoblich, keeping sidereal time, were stopped at 6h. 42m. 50s. a.m. local mean time, or 5h. 34m. 30s. a.m. Greenwich mean time.

500 miles an hour.

The problems connected with the earthquake were discussed at the meeting of the French Academy of Sciences on Monday. M. Mascart stated the contents of a note from M. Fines, of Perpignan, who possesses a magnetometer. A little before the shock his magnetic instruments were shaken by a peculiar jolting motion. At 5.45 a.m. the magnetic registering instruments at the Observatory in the Parc de St. Maur, near Paris, exhibited the same motions. At the Lyons Observatory similar vibrations were observed at 5.55. M. Mascart remarked that these movements were simultaneous. It was not, therefore, an oscillatory movement passing from one point to another with which they had to deal, but a phenomenon which affected a large space simultaneously. He supposed there had been an electric current which had acted on all the instruments placed within its sphere of action. The form of the curves recorded was very distinct from those given by magnetic instruments when affected by storms or auroras. M. Mascart suggested that means might yet be found of predicting the approach of a seismic storm. He added that if the cause of the effects that had been observed was an electric flux, it was easy to understand why their intensity was everywhere nearly the same. A commission was appointed to examine documents which may be transmitted with reference to the earthquakes.

NOTES

A CIRCULAR to Great Britain and the other European States, and to the United States, has been forwarded by the Executive Commissioners of the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition. The Exhibition will be opened on August 1, 1888, in order to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the colony of New South Wales, and will remain open for six months. The Commission invites the British, foreign, and colonial Governments to participate in the undertaking, and trusts that steps will promptly be taken by them for the completest possible representative display. It is pointed out that the population of Australasia is 3,500,000, that the imports of British goods annually amount in value to 32,000,000/., and that 7700 miles of rail