Notes

Abstract

IN the disastrous earthquake at San Francisco, a detailed description of which is given in another part of the present issue, it is reported that upwards of iooo persons lost their lives, and that material damage was done to the value of more than sixty million pounds sterling. There seems little reason to doubt that most of these lives and the greater part of the property were lost in the fire which followed the earthquake, and that a little forethought would have prevented, or at least greatly lessened, the awful calamity. Electric mains were broken by the earthquake shock at a time when the current was being supplied, and gas and water mains were shattered. The electric current does not appear to have been stopped at the power stations, and the consequent numerous short circuits which occurred soon inflamed escaping gas and set fire to buildings in many parts of the city. The broken water mains obliterated the water supply, and the only means of checking the fire seems to have been the demolition by dynamite of property in its path. The steel buildings in the city appear to be almost intact. The earthquake did not damage them, and the fire only consumed the woodwork. Despite the rumours vhich have been in circulation as to damage to universities and observatories in the disturbedj area, it is gratifying to know that there is as yet no onfirmation of such calamities. Upon inquiry at the Royal Astronomical Society, we learn that no news has been received about any of the Californian observatories. Astronomers are particularly anxious as to the fate of the Lick Observatory. situated as it is very near to the centre of disturbance, and in view of a rumour that has reached a London fire insurance company of serious injury to the observatory. The Solar Observatory at Mount Wilson-near Pasadena, which is ten miles N.N.E. of Los Angeles-is probably too far to the south to have been damaged.