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The present volume differs from a text-book of seismology in givingbrief, though detailed, accounts of individual earthquakes rather thana discussion of the phenomena and distribution of earthquakes ingeneral. At the close of his Les Tremblements de Terre, ProfessorFouqué has devoted a few chapters to some of the principal earthquakesbetween 1854 and 1887; and there are also the well-known chapters inLyell's Principles of Geology dealing with earthquakes of a stillearlier date. With these exceptions, there is no other work coveringthe same ground; and he who wishes to study any particular earthquakecan only do so by reading long reports or series of papers writtenperhaps in several different languages. The object of this volume isto save him this trouble, and to present to him the facts that seemmost worthy of his attention.
The chapter on the Japanese earthquake is reprinted, with a few slightadditions, from a paper published in the Geographical Journal, and Iam indebted to the editor, not only for the necessary permission, butalso for his courtesy in furnishing [vi]me with clichés of the blockswhich illustrated the original paper. The editor of Knowledge hasalso allowed me to use a paper which appeared four years ago as thefoundation of the ninth chapter in this book.
CHARLES DAVISON.
Birmingham,
January, 1905.