QE 537 UC-NRLF EARTH SCIENCES LIBRARY 1 Kuinamoto. 2 Oita. 3 Fukuoka. 4 Sln'monosekl. 5 IHrnshlma. 6 Matsuyama. 7 Koohl. 8 Tnkuslitma. 9 Okayama. 10 Matsue. 11 Kobe. 12 Osaka. 18 \Vaka>aina. 14 'fan. \i> oisu. 1C, Kyoto. 17 Miyaxu. 1H Gifii. lit Saoya. 20 HaiuiimatHU. 21 Mil i. 2'.' Shizuoka. '-'.1 Sliiinoila. '.'4 Odnwara. 25 Kolu. 2rt Takasaki. L'7 MaetiH-hi. 2H Kushiki. 29 Knuazawa. 30 Fukui. 81 Nfiyano. 32 Nikko. 33 Tokyo. 84 Chiba. 86 ilito. 'M l'tsunoini\a. 37 Kiikushima. 88 Naoe/u. 3!> NiiKata. The bUck towns represent where shocks were most severely felt, those half shaded experiencing a slight vibration, while the others were scarcely shake.n ai nil. . Tfie Steal Eannpaie in Japan, CTOBER f Being a full description of the disasters resulting from the recent terrible catastrophe, taken from the accounts in the " Hyogo News" by its Special Correspondent, and from other sources. Kobe: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF THE " HYOGO NEWS." 1 89 2. EARTH SCIENCES LIBRARY llrusfr>0:fi0r)S. PAGE. Nauiwa Cotton Mill (Exterior) 4 ,. (Interior) 6 Takeshima-cho, Ogaki 12 Kisogawa Embankment .. 17 Nagaragawa Bridge 18 Gifu 20 15hvajima , 24 Nagoya Post Office . . . . 2G Odai-mura. Owari 28 Funarnachi, Mino 89 Yanase-rnura, Mino 48 Kitagata-iuura, Mino 60 PAGE Preface to First Edition .. ..vii. ., Second Edition Introduction Kobe and Osaka Special Correspondent's Report Vlll. . 1 4 .11 Prof. Sekiya's Letters 30 Visit to the Neodani Valley (Rev. W. Weston) 32 Earthquake Fund in Kobe ; 43 Report of Relief Committee 46 The Death Roll 61 Area of Disturbance 62 Addendum 64 5 74 156 v f y 1 PREFACE TO FIRST E T'HIS account makes no pretensions to being scientific. It is simply a record of what , I experienced in Kobe, and a description of the scenes witnessed in travelling over the districts where the most disastrous effects of the earthquake of October 28th, 1891, resulted. H. TENNANT. Kobe, 12th November, 1891. *' \ * ACE TO SECOND EDITION, kindly welcome with which the first edition of this little work was received, and the large number of orders we were unable to fulfil, led to the conclusion that a more exhaustive work, well illustrated, would meet with an equally cordial reception. I have therefore made the present book as complete as the sources of information available would permit of, and it may be considered as containing the gist of all there is to learn concerning the great earthquake of October, 1891, the disastrous effects succeeding it, and ' the measures adopted by the Government, the people, and foreigners for the relief of the sufferers. Thanks are due to Mr. SIM and the Rev. W. WESTON for the very graphic accounts they have furnished, and to Mr. WARREN, of Osaka, for his two excellent photographs of the Naniwa Mill, while the excellent etchings contributed by M. BIGOT will doubtless be highly appreciated. H. TBNNANT. Kobe, 10th February, 1892. INTRODUCTION^. -t- tARTHQUAKES are frequent in Japan, says J. J. REIN in his able and interesting work on this country. Such violent disturbances, he continues, fortunately occur "but seldom, that is to say, according to previous ex- perience and expectation, about one in every twenty years. The last destructive earthquake, however, took place in the autumn of 1855, so that already twenty-five years have elapsed without a recurrence, and the old rule apparently no longer holds. This was written in 1 880, and although in that year a shock of considerable violence was felt it was not until the morning of the 28th October, 1891, that a seismic disturbance of any startling dimensions transpired. That, however, amply atoned for any delay, and by the extent of the area effected, and the terrific devastation wrought, main- tained the reputation of Japan for being subject to such fearful visitations. Japanese histories teem with incidents of the phenomena. There is a legend that in 286 B.C., Fujiyama was formed, as well as Lake Biwa, by one of these subterranean upheavals. * ir ) J^P* 1 )' The earliest authentic instance is that which occurred in 416 A.D., when the Imperial Palace at Kioto was thrown to the ground. Again, in 599, the buildings throughout the province of Yamato were all destroyed, and special prayers were ordered to be offered up to the deity of earthquakes. In 679, a tremendous shock caused many fissures, or chasms, to open in the province of Chikuzen and Chikugo, in Kiushiu, the largest of these fissures being four miles in length and 20 feet in width. In 685, a terrible disturbance occurred. Mountains were toppled over, rivers overflowed and tremen- dous destruction resulted. In the province of Tosa an area of five million tsubo sunk into the sea. In 844, the province of Higo was devastated, 570 villages disappearing, and 280 mountain-slips being recorded, the loss of life being immense. In 745, the ground rocked continuously for two days and three nights in succession, Mino province, then as now, suffer- ing terrible disasters. Fifty-two years later Kioto, which has been frequently a sufferer, was almost annihilated, while, in 818, the fatalities in Sagami, Musashi, Shimosa, Hitachi, The, jEcL7 t t?Lqu,CLke, tn, J'a.pccn,. Kotsuke, and Shiinotsuke were so numerous that the Gov- ernment liad to bury the corpses. The year 827, is also noted for a mighty earthquake. The first strong shock did great damage, but it was two days later, when the most awful disturbance followed. Violent earthquakes also occurred in 830 and 841, while in the years 850, 856. 857, and 868, ill-fatod Kioto suffered severely. Sometimes these shocks were accompanied by sea-floods, one of these, in 869, drown- ing 1,000 persons in Oshiu. More recently in 1702, the loft-walls of the outside and inside mates of the castle of Yedo were destroyed, tidal \vaves broke along the coast in the vicinity, and the road leading through the famous pass of Hakone, was closed up by the alteration in the surface of the earth. Indeed Tokio has constantly been victimized, and fire in nearly every instance has supplemented the catastrophe. In 1703, such a calamity happened costing it is estimated the lives altogether of. 200,000 persons, and laying the capital in ruins. Echix.en was decimated in 1726, and in 1751, Kioto, and Echigo were terribly affected, 16,000 people being killed. These instances by no means exhaust the catalogue. In 1782, Kwanto was badly shaken and in 1783, the eruption of Asama-yama was followed by violent earthquakes, the eruption of Onzenga-take, in 1792, being succeeded by similar phenomena. Coming to the early days of the present centurv, Dewa was the theatre of repeated concussions in 1804. and in 1822, 150 shocks were felt in Edo in the course of three davs. Once more, in 1828, an earthquake occurred in Echigo, and 30,000 men, women and children were destroyed. T\vo years later Kioto was again afflicted. The Tokugawa palace, Nijo, was among the buildings overthrown while the number of people slain was described as innumerable. It was not one shock, but three following each other in rapid succession at four in the afternoon, the ground rocking like waves. The affrighted people were too terror-stricken to do anything, and it was days before their senses returned to them. The shocks occurred on the 18th August, 1830. From that date to September 3rd, the shocks were continuous, and then another disturbance caused the sea to inundate the country, causing still greater loss of life. The palace of Sendai was laid in ruins in 1835, and some 400 or 500 houses swept into the sea, while in 1847, in the province of Shinano, mountains were thrown down, rivers were changed, and districts flooded? the loss of life being appalling. In 1854, the provinces of Suruga, Mikawa, Totomi, Ise, Iga, Settsu and Harima, as well as the whole of Shikoku were severely shaken. It was this earthquake which destroyed the town of Shimoda, in the province of Izu, which had been opened as a foreign port in Japan, while a Russian frigute, the Diana, lying in harbour at the time, was so severely damaged by the shock, and the waves which it raised, that she had to be abandoned. The last great catastrophe, prior to the present year, was in 1855. It was about the same date, occurring on Novem- ber 10th. It may not be amiss to describe it a little fully, The. JScir'thqu.a.ke. in J~cipctn. and I again quote Mr. REIN'S \w)rk, from which most of these facts are gleaned: "The last great earthquake in the capital, Tokio, was that of 1855. Its horrors still live in the recollection of the people, and they fear nothing more than a repetition of the occurrence. Altogether eighty shocks were felt within a month, the most violent of them on the night of the 10th November. Yedo was speedily turned into a rubbish heap, and fire broke out simultaneously in thirty different places. It was as light as by day, and the black clouds of smoke covered the whole sky. Those of the inhabi- tants who had not previously thought of saving themselves, mostly perished under beams and ruins; others fell a prey to the flames. The survivors had taken refuge in the streets. The disturbances continued almost uninterruptedly until the 1 1 th November. From time to time the shocks were repeated, but were continually weaker until the end of this earthquake arrived on the 28th November. The number of fallen houses in Yedo was 14,241, of fallen warehouses 1,649. But this refers only to the town proper, not to the dwellings of the Daimio and Samurai. 104,000 persons . are said to have perished. Very striking in proportion to the violence of the earthquake was its very limited area. On Nakasendo it was felt only as far as Takasaki; on Koshiukaido as far as Hachi- oji: on Tokaido as far as Hodogaya; Oshiukaido, as far as Utsunomiya ; in Shimosa as far as Sakasai. The plain of Kwanto was the hearth and Tokio the centre of this earthquake." In nearly all of these cases it is noteworthy that there -was only one principal shock, the preceding or successive oscil- lations bqjng comparatively mild. This is so frequent as to appear to be almost a fixed law, and the obvious deduction should greatly reassure the alarmed people, both foreigners and Japanese, who fear that the recent terrible shock is but the predecessor of some still more dreadful cataclysm. Up to the time of writing (Nov. llth) the shocks have been continuous, though gradually less frequent, and less severe. We may well assume therefore, that the worst is past. T T TS FFECTS I -t- QBE. )isasfep erf ^tvN October 28th, 1891, Kobe residents were startled ^^ by the most severe shock of earthquake felt since the opening of the port. Chimneys were thrown down, houses cracked, and people rushed into the streets in their night- clothes, while the dogs in their kennels howled piteously. The next morning the following account appeared in the Hyogo News: " Last night Kobe was visited by a series of earthquake shocks culminating this morning in the most severe seismic disturbance felt here for a long time. It commenced as nearly as possible at about twenty minutes to seven o'clock. My boy had just called me, when suddenly I felt the house quiver as if struck by a tremendous squall. Then followed a series of violent vibrations, seemingly travelling from northeast to southwest, causing every door and window to rattle, while the bed heaved to and fro in similar fashion to a boat rocking in a choppy sea. The furniture shook and swayed so much that the washbasin was partially emptied of its contents, and a box was thrown from the dressing table. The sensation was a very curious one, the trembling and rocking of the" house, and the motion of everything seemed like a delusion of the senses. The shocks continued for nearly two minutes, and then ceased abruptly, but afterwards, and up to the time of going to press, there were several mild repetitions. "At No. 10, the wall of a stone godown fell down, while the chimneys at the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, the Hyogo Hotel, and the Hotel des Colonies collapsed, doing- more or less damage. On the Hill a large number of chimneys are reported to have fallen. The shop of Messrs. Thompson & Co. was wrecked, and presented a most dismal appearance. Bottles and packages had been thrown from their shelves, and, crashing through glass cases had smashed many valuable articles, besides causing confusion in the strange admixture of drugs. One case of moulded glass it will be impossible to have repaired in Japan. Probably the curio stores have suffered most. The Museum Art Co.'s store had a very large number of valuable vases thrown down and a great many pieces of valuable ware broken. But what was most NANIWA COTTON MILL. The trL J~a.pctTL. curious was that more damage was not done. Large vases fell from a height of ten feet, and yet were uninjured. Others fell in the cases pell-mell on each other and had not a flaw. The loss is estimated at about $550. "Messrs. Oliashi estimates damages at about $300, Messrs. Hamada a similar sum, but Messrs. Echigoya have only suffered slightly. Great loss, however, is said to be caused to owners of crockery shops throughout the town. Many of the walls in the interior of the Hyogo Hotel are very badly cracked. "The last earthquake of anything like a similar magnitude was that of 1853. The most violent shocks to-day were ex- perienced at G.40, 7.00, 7.11, and 7.40, the one at 6.40 causing the damage." But much more terrible news was to follow. The same issue contained the following telegrams : "Osaka, 28Ui Oct. 'Great earthquake. Two mills wrecked. Many lives lost. Concession has suffered severely. A. N. HANSELL." Messrs. LUCAS & Co. have received a telegram from Osaka as follows: "Earthquake. Denbo Mill (Naniwa) roof col- lapsed. Many killed." The Hyogo News at once dispatched a representative to Osaka, and the paper of October 29th contained the following narrative: 4 "Our brief report of yesterday by no means conveyed an adequate idea of the extent of the damage caused by the great earthquake of yesterday morning. In Kobe, a chimney fell at the Hotel des Colones, crashing through the verandah, while the interior of the hotel was cracked. A chimney at the Oriental Hotel also fell, while another fell through the . roof of the Masonic Hall, doing very serious damage to the building. The most serious personal incident was the case of a lady on the hill, the shock producing premature confinement and consequent death of the child. Mr. WOOLLEY'S house is very badly damaged, and numerous articles thrown about, while Mr. LUCAS'S residence is also injured and the walls cracked. People rushed from their houses without stopping to array themselves, and in one case a young man was seen in the centre of the settlement with only a singlet on. The shock was felt on the ships lying in the harbour, the captain of the dismasted Marquis of Lome informing us that every- thing on the vessel shook like an aspen leaf. He saw two small waves approaching the vessel, and the shock was coincident with these striking the vessel. He further stated that he had never previously felt a similar shaking. The passengers on the Saikio-maru also felt the vibrations on their way down from Yokohama." During yesterday afternoon there were two or three mild shocks, one at 6.30, and a rather prolonged one this morning about 3 a.m. But, as a brief telegram in our yesterday's issue indicated, it was at Osaka where the chief force of the wave appears to- have expended itself, though as the city is built on alluvial 6 in, soil the serious nature of the visitation is surprising. We went to the city yesterday afternoon. On the way up one could note the effect the shock had on the rivers, throwing the water up the bank a foot or more. Just entering Osaka one noticed a chimney stack on the left hand, belonging to the crematory, broken in half, and on the right, that of a brush factory also thrown down, and where we afterwards learnt three persons were killed. Arriving we made for the Naniwa, the scene of the terrible disaster, which rumour with its wonted exaggeration had magnified into 300 killed. Fortunately it was only a tenth of that number who were thus suddenly hurried into eternity, but the catastrophe was none the less appalling. En route one could notice that almost every solid house had sustained more or less damage. Telegraph poles were out of the perpendicular, walls cracked, chimneys serrated, and leaning .at peculiar angles. One big smoke stack near the Naniwa Mill was frightfully cracked and disjointed, but still stood, though in a very precarious position. The road to the mill as we neared it was thronged with spectators coming from, or going to, the scene of the disaster. Some were relatives whose cheeks and eyes betrayed their loss, while all spoke in awed tones, remarkably contrast- ing with Japanese wonted vivacity. The view from the bend in the road where we first caught sight of the mill was one of desolation. The roof had disappeared and jagged portions of the walls stood tottering. The mill was a three-storied one, with a serrated roof, the span between the walls being 120 feet, the walls themselves being only a brick and a half thick. There were no iron rods going through the walls and riveted outside as there are in buildings of a similar size in England, the beams resting merely on small granite supports protruding from the thin wall, instead of being built into the wall. Consequently, when the big shock came, nnd the walls oscillated, the huge weight of the machinery pulled the roof downwards, and, slipping out of the supports it fell with a crash, knocking the northern wall outwards. There were some 700 people at work in the mill at the time, but on experiencing the shock most of them managed to escape. Others were just making their exit when the crash came, and it was on the exit side that the wall fell, burying, under its tons of brick and plaster the numerous unfortunate victims. It thundered through the second and first floors on the northern side, carrying away almost the whole length for a width of about 40 ft. There piled up in inextricable confusion were carding and spinning frames, nuts, screws, fragments of cotton, rafters, and human bodies in one indescribable mass. The cries of the wounded, the frantic shouting of anxious relatives, complemented the sickening spectacle, a spectacle only less mournful than that which was presented a little later when relatives, pale-eyed mothers, and weeping children sought to recognize or identify the battered corpses laid out in the drying room, their ghastly features, some crushed beyond recognition, looking more sickening in their INTERIOR OF^THE|NANIWA THe, in J~a.pctn. white shrouds. And over all was tlie hush, the awe, tlie solemnity of death. Tlie surviving employes confused for a moment by the fearful fate which they had so narrowly escaped, and which had overtaken so many of their erstwhile companions, immediately set about the work of rescue, and worked with almost superhuman energy. Their numbers were quickly supplemented by a detachment of soldiers from the garrison, where evidently the horror had been witnessed. All day long the work of clearing away the debris went on, but as late as five o'clock there were still four people unaccounted for. Two or three marvellous escapes are reported. In one case a child crouched under a machine, and a rafter falling over her, she was taken out alive, while not three feet away was the mangled body of her juvenile companion. Another instance was that of a very tall young fellow who stood in the window of the third story. He was shot out amongst the falling bricks, and, although falling such a height, and amongst such a mass of bricks, tiles, and beams, with the exception of a scratch on the face, aud a rent or two in the trousers escaped injury. Such an escape borders on the miraculous. The number of actual dead may be set down at 30, but the large number of serious injuries will probably largely supplement this total. Mr. TSUZUKI, the foreman of the mill, said: Usually I am here every morning at 6 a.m., but this morning I was detained in the house later. Just before I readied the mill I felt the shaking, and saw the work-people rushing out. I looked up and saw the wall swaying, and then it came down with a crash. One of the officers was badly injured. My engineer told me that the smoke stack, 1 50 feet high, which you notice is badly cracked, rocked at the top fully eight feet. If it had happened at six o'clock, when the night hands go,, off and the day hands come on, the loss of life must have been fearful. There were 700 people in the building at the time. Mr. .EASTHAM, the English engineer, who has been superin- tending the erection of ihe machinery, made the following statement: I left my house just at the side of the mill at about ft. 4 6, and was walking around the building when I felt myself stagger like a drunken man. I heard a strange rumbling noise, and, turning to see what it was, I noticed the mill beginning to rock. It rocked two or three times, and then I saw the roof collapse, and the walls give way at the third story. After the crash there was a sudden silence, a silence which could be felt. Part of the wall fell on my cook's quarters, demolished them and killing instantaneously both the cook and iiis wife. I went around the building, and by the time I arrived there the employe's were already at the work of re.-cue, and they worked like demons. I should have finished my work on Friday next, and had booked my passage on the P. & O. Had I been 20 seconds later leaving the house I must have been killed. Great injury was done to houses in the Concession, but- with the exception of the accident to the house of the VEN.- in, Japan. ARCHDEACON WARREN, we must refrain from giving details till to-morrow because of want of space. With the ARCH- DEACON at the time was staying the Bishop of Exeter, and his son Bishop BICKERSTETH, as well as the wife and daughter of the prelate of Exon. Two chimneys were thrown down, one crashing through the roof and utterly wrecking the drawing-room, smashing the table into splinters. Said the ARCHDEACON: " I was dressing at the time of the earthquake, and having before experienced shocks, did not at first run out. But hearing my daughter scream, and the others hurrying, I also ran out, as did Bishop BICKEKSTETH. Just as we got outside the chimney fell. On returning, we found that the Bishop of Exeter and his wife had taken a stand under the arched doorway of their bedroom, his lordship deeming that the safest place. Although, of course, much alarmed, he did not exhibit much fright. Had the chimney fallen towards the line of movement, instead of with it, it must have fallen into the Bishop's bedroom. In the course of a brief conversation his lordship, who expressed himself greatly pleased with Japan, said that the shock much alarmed him, and that he considered his escape Providential. A cabinet in Miss WARREN'S bedroom, used as a clothes re- pository, was not only thrown to the floor, but precipitated some eighteen inches into the room. One chimney is so badly damaged that it had to be carefully removed brick by brick. The ARCHDEACON stated that in future he would only have iron pipes and not brick chimneys." The shock was also severely felt in Kyoto and a corres- pondent wrote: Kyo'to, Oct. 28, 1891. SIR, The western capital is far less favoured with seismic visitations than its eastern sister. One never opens a Yokohama weekly without expecting to find the record of an earthquake. During the last five years there have been only four or five which were noticeable at Kyoto without the aid of a seismograph. The last came this morning at about 6.40, when the first shock was perceived, lasting between two and three minutes, and producing a most pro- nounced rocking. The timbers creaked in a way that suggested the desirability of a turn or two in the yard before sitting down to breakfast. Outside, the ground moved sufficiently to call one's attention to the fact that the great dragon beneath was uneasy. Several chimney-caps and some Kobe cornices fell at the foreign houses. Breakfast tables were generously covered with soot, and Kobe dust was sprinkled about promiscuously. No serious damage was done, but this was the longest and most severe (with perhaps one exception) of the shocks experienced during five years. Shortly after, two other slight shocks were felt, and during the chapel service at the Doshisha (7.30-8) three more came the last shaking the chapel considerably and causing the 400 students to rise en masse and start for the exits. It was soon over, and the students immediately resumed their seats in a most orderly way, so that after a minute or two of confusion, the speaker in. J~ctpa.n. 9 was enabled to continue his remarks. It was a source of no little gratification to see how reasonably this large body of young men conducted themselves. At 10.38 there was a third shock, severe enough to start some of the students from the recitation hall. Slight shocks have continued at intervals up to the present (12 noon), as many as thirty having been noticed, if we may trust the experience of one of the students. A foreign friend had noticed ten at 8 o'clock. Yours, &c., TREMOR. Dr. LEARNED, of the Doshisha College, who was telegraphed to, wrote: "I cannot report anything very thrilling. So far as I can learn, no damage of consequence was done to buildings; only a few chimneys were injured, and the like. At Kinko- zan's, a well-known porcelain store, the damage through breakage of porcelain is estimated at two thousand yen. At Nishimura's silk store it is said that seven hundred screens were damaged. A curious result in my house was the blowing out of a great quantity of soot from the chimneys into the rooms. What the force was that threw out the soot so violently, is a mystery to me." On October 30th, the following telegrams appeared: Yokohama, '29th Oct., 1891. Earthquake felt here and at Tokyo. Duration seven minutes. The severest experienced since the founding of the Observatory. The damage done is small, but the fright was great. The smoke stack of the Electric Light Works he,re has been demolished, but no personal injuries sustained. Near Harnamatsu the railway is reported to have sunk several inches for the distance of a mile. Near Maizaka the line sunk one foot over a distance of five miles. , Nagoya, 29th Oct., 5.30 p.m. Severe earthquake yesterday morning, 1,533 persons killed, and 436 injured. 5,475 houses destroyed. Conflagration at ten places, which is not yet extinguished. Kwanzei Nippo. Rumour says that the Ibukiyama of Omi was roaring some ten days since, and it has become louder from the 28th At Ogaki 3,000 houses were destroyed and burnt, and at, Gifu about seventenths of the whole town were either thrown over or burnt. The deaths at Ogaki are estimated at close upon 1,000, and at Gifu at 2,000. A telegram in the Asahi from Tokyo states that the fire at Nagoya has resulted in the total destruction of the city. Tliese indicated that the real force of the shock was felt between Tarui and Nagoya, and a correspondent was im- mediately sent off to traverse the whole district. 10 Completing tlie list of accidents at Osaka, we may add that three chimneys of the American Girls' School fell, one of them crashing through the verandah and tearing away a portion of the roof. One of the teachers had a narrow escape. They were rushing down to get out of the passage when the chimney fell between the two of them. Mr. Tyson's house also suffered severely, a book-case, containing all the Rev. G. H. Poole's books, falling forward, while a pier glass was thrown from the mantelpiece and completely smashed. The family rushed out, and a chimney fell in front of them, so near that the children stumbled on the bricks without, how- ever, sustaining any injury. Mr. C. T. Warren said : I was with Mr. Chapman at the College. We ran out on to the verandah. He sprang from the verandah into the garden, and I was about to follow suit when a chimney fell between us. Had I jumped quickly I must have been killed. At No. 33, we saw the Rev. G. E. Woodhull, of the Amer- ican Presbyterian Mission, who stated that his house did not suffer. At No. 32, however, he said the three ladies residing there, the Misses Loveland, Haworth and Garvin, had a great fright. In one room a plated mirror, five feet long, was thrown from the wall and dashed to pieces, while a book- shelf, which stood on a table, was thrown into the< middle of the room and smashed. On the second story all the rooms in the house were badly cracked. At No. 1 4, Mr. Alexander's, one of the chimneys was flung over, and a curious circum- stance was noted. On the first floor there was a marble mantel-shelf and fittings. These were wrenched out and the chimney sunk about an inch, while large vertical cracks appeared in it. Yet on the first floor there was no truce of a flaw, although it was the same chimney. The outside portion of the chimney toppled over and crashed through the outhouses, the servants having a narrow escape. The girl's" school at Tennoji had all the walls damaged, and a strong arch in the central passage connecting two series of rooms was cracked right across. At No. 10, Mr. L. Dubois had a very close shave. He rushed from his bedroom into the passage just as a wall on the ridge of the house came through the roof, some of the bricks striking him on the shoulder, though, luckily, not injuring him much. A six-foot wall around the compound was thrown down for a distance of 50 feet. A wooden bridge over the Ajikawa presents a singular appearance. The fourth piles from the shore on the Conces- sion side sunk about a foot, curving the bridge without breaking it. The following day news of a most startling nature was received from. Nagoya, Gifu and Ogaki, and a special cor- respondent of the Hyogo News was immediately dispatched to the districts most affected. The following is his account. T HE PARTHQUAKE, (By the " Hyogo News " Special Correspondejit). arrived at Otsu on Oct. 30th, at about 8.30, and / put up at the Minaraitei, a very comfortable hotel under a beautiful ridge overlooking Lake Biwa. Otsu scarcely felt the earthquake, only the Kencho buildings and one chimney exhibiting any traces of the shock. But the most alarming rumours were current as to catastrophe beyond Tarui. We intended at first making direct for Nagoya, by way of Yokkaichi, but learnt that Friday's shocks had upset the branch line and there was no help for it but to proceed to Tarui, and to get overland by the best means possible. At Mai bar a we heard the most thrilling news of more shocks, and the frightful destruction prevailing. I im- mediately attempted to telegraph, but the lines were in- terrupted, and I therefore had only just time to despatch the note you have no doubt already received. Tiiere is little to add to the details there given. The road from here to Nagoya is so bad that the kuruma-men refuse to agree to take us beyond Ogaki, and we shall have to foot it. Not only so, but the houses are so demolished that the people have to camp out, and so must we. How long it will take me to do the trip I cannot estimate, but there is no communication from Nagoya, either by rail or telegraph to Yokohama or Kobe. The scenes as depicted by the Japanese must be dreadful. Only the Kencho buildings and a mission stand at Gifu, and the intermediate villages between Ogaki and Nagoya, though around Tarui itself only thirty houses have been overthrown, resulting in the deaths of twenty-two persons. Between Otsu and here the traces of earthquake are exceedingly slight, the lovely country, which, but for the fearful catastrophe, it would have been delightful to dilate upon, looking most peaceful and exceedingly beautiful in its wealth of autumnal tints. The courteous policeman, who is deeply interested in us, states that at Nagoya the dead already total 4,000, and the houses demolished 9,000. The train was crowded with eager passengers, many of them relatives of persons residing in the ill-fated towns. All of them come provided with blankets, which we have not got, and cannot obtain, in this little village. If to-night is as EartHq^u.cLk.e, in, cold as last, our experience will be none of the pleasantest. I have taken a little food, and we are supplementing it by obtaining eggs and chicken. From Ogaki we must walk, and hope to obtain coolies to carry our luggage. The shocks are incessant and another mountain, Tadoyama, is said to be rumbling ominously. Coming up in the train we have felt a shock, and the tremors are continuous. Whether these are merely the reaction of the principal shock, or the premonitory symptoms of an awful cataclysm we cannot pretend to predict, but the people here are almost paralysed with terror. Leaving Tarui the road curves past a magnificent sweep of hills, wooded almost to the summit, with Ilmkiyama looming up in the distance. We had not proceeded far before we discovered that the kuruma-men, alarmed at the earth-cracks, were taking us direct to Gifu, instead of to Ogaki. We remonstrated, and for a time they were obstinate; but finally gave way. A short ride through a charming coppice brought us on to the Ogakikaido, and directly afterwards we passed a hamlet, where the first really disastrous effects of the earth- quake were visible. Some ten or a dozen houses were demolished, in some instances the roofs having fallen bodily on the unfortunate inmates, while others were broken into fragments, many of those still standing having been shored up, and in a tottering condition. A small temple had been knocked over and lay at an angle of forty-five degrees, Nature evidently being no respecter of the gods. The frightened survivors had constructed tents of tatami by the roadside, preferring the security of the ground to the in- stability of their rickety tenements. The next hamlet told a similar tale, and then we came to a bridge badly cracked at both sides, a long transverse fissure running through it, and some distance on the solid road beyond. A little farther a group of half a dozen houses-lay prostrate, and beyond them a string of some seven or eight two-storied cottages on the left-hand side of the road, while those or the right-hand side were comparatively uninjured. Large fields of rice stood waiting the reapers, but many of the peasants are themselves felled by the Greater Reaper, and as their erstwhile neigh- bours are either, busy on the ruins, or too affrighted to resume their wonted avocations, the fields are deserted. Later, in the centre of the roadway, we came to another deep fissure, about twenty feet long and six inches wide, the jinri Hsha-men exhibiting great hesitancy in passing it. Parallel with the railway used to be the village of Shiota, now an indescribable mass of- mud, plaster, shattered tiles, and broken beams, over which we had to pick our way. Only one or two of the more solid structures remained, while the temple was in ruins. A bridge over a small stream brought us to- Ogaki. The bridge was badly wrecked and half-broken, and the road leading to it deeply fissured, Ogaki was a long straggling town, consisting mainly of one winding street. We entered the western portion, and a scene of unutterable desolation presented itself. The first part was entirely de- solated and in ruins. Shop of all kinds could be detected by the TAKESHIMA-OEO, OGAKI. The, in J~apCLTL. debris. Here a porcelain store, there a cabinet-makers, next a curio shop, and again an ironmongers. Over all hung a cloud of dust caused by the working of the labourers in their search for dead bodies. Now and then we saw them being taken out, some an unrecognizable battered mass of flesh, clothes, and dust; others just slightly disfigured. Farther on we came to the end of the burning portion, walking through which we were sensible of the sickening odour of burnt human flesh. I may mention an amusing incident. Our kuruma-men at Ogaki demanded eighty-five cents, the proper fare was fifteen. Fortunately a policeman arrived and quickly settled the dispute by awarding twenty-five cents. He secured for me a coolie to carry my bag to Gifu, an undertaking for which the exorbitant kuruma-men demanded three yen. The destitution is dreadful, and we are constantly being beseeched for assistance. There are also some heartrending stories to tell. A little girl informs us that she lost her father, mother, and sister, and was injured in the head herself. Others give records of miraculous escapes and mournful losses. Ogaki used to lie on a level plain on the banks of a small river, whose meandering course is marked by fertile rice fields now laden with crops. The railway runs at the northern side. Pen cannot depict the frightful devastation the town now exhibits. It is "magnificent ruin." A tributary of the Shioda-gawa intersects the town, and marks two forms of destruction, one a blackened mass of tiles with large heaps still smouldering, and emitting the pungent exhalations of human bodies slowly incinerating, the other a distorted mass of debris and tottering fabrics. We entered at the southern side where the earthquake alone was re- sponsible for the damage. It was complete : fire might consume the remains, it is no exaggeration to say it could not have increased the destruction. Indeed, Ogaki felt the shock more than any other town. The houses simply collapsed wholesale, and the large number of deaths, over a thousand, according to the record which an official at the hospital kindly totalled for us, shows how sudden was the catastrophe. The number badly injured, 637, is smaller than that of those killed, for the simple reason that those inside the houses were crushed to a jelly. In many instances the houses had fallen right across the street with the dead under them. Over these still shaking masses one could not help walking with a feeling of awe. In the spaces along the streets the survivors of the calamity had erected little tents- with portions of shoji tatami and other remnants. Already what could be recovered from the shops was being offered for sale, and one such erection contained many bales of cloths and drapery. A little temple on our left had been precipitated at a considerable smgle, the roof still intact, the supports and interior all smashed. The granite columns at ihe approach had been overturned, and one was leaning on a lamp stand apparently ready to fall at the slightest movement. The The, sluggish waters of the Shioda-gawa were choked with rubbish, the banks cracked and spilt open, and the bridges thrown about in most fantastic style. Crossing the tiny stream or ditch, which feeds the Shioda- gawa, we came upon a scene which might well appal the stoutest heart. Over an area of some 500 yards long, by 300 yards wide, the fire fiend had raged unchecked. A gloomy mass of smoke-begrimed tiles, two or three fire-proof godowns, and a tall bamboo used at matsufi, were all that remained of nearly two thousand houses. Many of the people were wandering over the desolate waste, turning up the fragments in a hopeless search. But they were not depressed. They had to lie on the bare ground, they had not saved any tatamt, only possessing what they stood upright in, but they were cheerfully at work marking out sites for new houses, with green bamboos, having little pieces of paper with cabalistic signs attached. Farther back the men working in the overturned houses were jesting as they worked, and suffi- ciently light-hearted to make jokes about the appearance of the foreigners. One girl called her friend or sister, saying she had made a find. We looked rather curiously and saw a packet of toothpicks. We saw another girl turning up the wood work, and she informed us that her mother, father, and sister were buried beneath. Prisoners were working under the superintedendence of police. Passing close to the river bank over the burnt embers, we came into view of the castle and the school, the intervening space being the place where had stood the prostitute quarter, and beyond in a grove of blistered trees the remains of the East Honganji temple. In the latter at an early hour on the fateful morning three hundred people had congregated at a special matsuri service in connection with the harvest. The huge edifice, which a spectator the day previous had estimated from its solidity and massive appearance would last a thousand years, had crashed down, and massacred the whole of the devoted worshippers, whose corpses were afterwards calcined by the huge conflagration. The fire originated in a dyeing works, the half-a-dozen iron crucibles still marking the spot. Turning the corner of the castle wall, in which huge rents appeared, and where the watch towers in their dilapidated appearance betrayed signs of their transit through an ordeal compared with which the strongest shock of arms it ever had to undergo was mere play, we reached the outer limit of the burnt area. Farther on was the school, which, although cracked and shattered, still stood well. This had been transformed into a hospital and here were brought the in- jured sufferers. It was a melancholy sight. A sad proces- sion approached the ga-tes. Women leaning on the necks of their friends, with faces battered and heads bandaged, just able to reach the enclosure. Others under the futons in a hastily-constructed ambulance, pale and ghastly to look upon. Inside the moans of the injured, and the sickening spectacle of bandages and blanched faces were heartrending. A number of doctors with their very limited appliances and almost entire absence of 'lint, where one woman was just having an arm amputated at the shoulder, another having an ugly wound in the leg stitched. The official gave us the number of deaths at 1,000, and the wounded at 687. The police corps suffered severely, many of them being killed. Here we must put in a word for the sufferers. Hunger has followed the earthquake, and the fire, and probably even yet pestilence will work dire havoc, if a seemingly imminent eruption does not demolish the whole district and every living thing upon it. But the hunger is a real and present terror, and the prompt action of the Germans cannot be too highly commended. Whatever relief is given should be immediate. Any eye-witnesses cannot fail to be moved by the piteous sight of the foodless, homeless creatures, and if written descriptions do not elicit responsive sympathy, it is because the writer's pen is incompetent to vividly pourtray the extent of the misery. Leaving the town we next proceeded towards Gifu. We learnt that the railway and the road had both been badly served. The road was reported to be in indescribable con- fusion, and the railway equally knocked about. Thinking the railway of more importance, I selected the line, and walked the whole distance, some thirteen miles, while one member of the party went by the road. It was worth the walking. The towns may display the worst horrors, but that line gives the most perfect picture of the gigantic impetus of in J'ctpccrt. 15 i^ the shoCK 1 anywhere obtainable. Ogaki Station simply does not exist. The ruins of it are there, but the contorted rails, twisted and curved, the collapsed soil, the ruined sheds, the destroyed water tank are all grim evidences of the earth- quake's awful force. Leaving the station we followed the track for the first four hundred yards, meeting with nothing to attract notice. At length we reached a small bridge. The rails just before nearing it were of a serpentine order. Some of the sleepers had risen, and others were depressed. The solid masonry of the structure, however, was standing uninjured, though the the ground had given way on each side for a distance of about a couple of feet. From there to Gifu there were at least a hundred of those bridges, but this one was a type of all the others. The ground had given way around all of them, in some cases as much as ten or twelve feet, but with only one exception, the masonry remained almost intact, speaking volumes for the solidity of construction and the excellent mortar used. As to the rails, we never noticed them broken in a single spot. Some places they were supporting bridges of many tons, at others were twisted, curved, and strangely distorted, but never in a single instance had they broken, though in one case the rivets had given out, and the joints parted. The men who laid that permanent way laid every part with the greatest care. The exception to the little bridge was curious. One of the walls had moved bodily around, making half a right angle with the line of its former 26 Ecirt'hq-a.a.'h.e in J~apa.rL. position, while the opposite side had fallen backwards a house was thus light and compact, arid would oscillate to a couple of feet. The rails here were a singular sight. They curved on approaching the bridge like a figure 8. Beyond it they went up and down like magnified plough ruts, and the earth beneath in places had subsided some ten or twelve feet. The shock which thus pulled these rails so tremendously out of their natural position must have been awful, and we were quite prepared to hear a peasant tell us that the ground bounded up a foot or eighteen inches. Meanwhile, along both sides of the railway, evidences were painfully numerous. Hamlets and temples, solitary farm houses and outbuildings, had shared a common fate. In one little village of a dozen houses only one made any pretence of standing, and that was so very shaky that it was dangerous to go near it. The people were living in the bamboo groves. and the fields were deserted. From Ogaki to Xagoya, which we reached next day, travelling in and out over something like seventy more old miles, we only counted thirty-two people at work in the fields, which had all ripened for harvest. Be- tween the Ibigawa and the Nagaragawa we observed a strange fact. There was a little hamlet of some twelve or fourteen houses lying close up to the Nagaragawa's batiks. The shock there had not been less severe. Indeed, as we shall see, its effects were more terrible than hitherto recorded, yet only one of those houses had fallen. This is what we considered the reason. They all had shale roofs, not tiles, but small shales, and the eaves projected only slightly beyond the walls. The third of a right angle", and perhaps considerably more, before the centre of gravity got outside the perpendicular, causing it to lose its equilibrium. On the other hand, the massive roofs of thatch projecting for a couple of feet would easily swing outside the centre of gravity when once they rocked. But be the reason what it may, the houses stood uninjured mid ruin. Reaching the Ibigawa bridge, a magnificent iron structure" on brick piles, we had to tread carefully over the vibrating sleepers. We could not see the rails all the way looking at the bridge from 300 yards. There were hills and valleys in the erstwhile straight line, marking the alternations of sub- sidence and upheaval. The bridge had stood nobly. It was an arched structure of iron, ami, though the rails were twisted into curves, sleepers splintered, and rivets snapped, the bridge itself had no signs of the tremendous shaking it had under- gone. Not so the supports. They were built of brick and close down to the river bed were lateral arches at right angles to the flow of the river. Tiiese proved the weakest spots. The first pier stood intact amidst the wreck of destruction. The second had cracked at the base of the stem just where the little arch divided the erection. The ominous red streak in the white morler ran all round the column. Tiie next pile was equally as harshly served, while the one nearest the opposite bank was worse treated. It had cracked and sunk, and will require rebuilding. THE KISOQAWA EMBANKMENT. n, That embankment, built with so much care on the Hira- niugawa, had been frightfully damaged; Tlie precipitation was not so excessive as at the banks of the Nagaragawa, but the gap? were sufficiently wide to be appalling. For a distance of thirty yards the ground had caved in and sunk fourteen or sixteen feet. One gigantic fissure ran its serpentine course for at least a hundred yards along what had been the summit of the bank, but which now lay depressed in the hollow. That fissure was in places four and five feet wide. Another big fissure ran transversely, while the ground was divided into little hillocks. Passing clear of the bridge, an unprecedented view met our gaze. We could see as far as the Nagaragawa. It was like a toboganning road with its devious undulations twisted far, far out of the original order of the line. Between those two bridges the earth subsided more than we had yet witnessed. Outside the bridge the sleepers and rails were suspended in mid-air, about eighteen or twenty feet, and the vibration, as we picked our way over them, was rendered the more unpleas- ant by a distinct shock of earthquake, whose approach was heralded by that low booming sound as of distant thunder, or the reverberations of big guns miles away. The tremor made the rails rattle, and though it blanched our cheeks for the bravest man must quail before the awful phenomenon, and my courage is of the faintest it did no other harm. But from that time forward those shocks were frequent, and they were always preceded by that ominous roar. Passing on we crossed a small burn spanned by a three-arched iron bridge. It had staggered at the impetus of the shock, the massive stone-work pillars had fallen back, and split, and it lay resting on the outer edge of the support, almost turned completely over, only the rails preventing it being precipitated into the quivering river, bed. That intervening space between the two rivers was the worst treated of any I had yet seen, and for the first time we noted a big tree snapped off short, though later Ave saw several beyond Gifu. Here the fissures defy description. Sand and mud covered the paddy fields for long distances. At one point we wished for a glass of water for we had left Tarui at eleven, and it was now three, and we had not moistened our lips. 'Seeing a farmhouse on the left which had not quite collapsed, we left the railway line, and 'struck across a paddy field. We had not advanced far before we came across a gaping crevice whose bottom could not be discerned, and, following it, we at length came upon a small submerged tract of land, and found a mud geyser. It was about three feet six inches in height and some six feet in diameter, its formation being that of a truncated cone, with polished sides, a cup-like lip stood at the southern end, and served as an exit for the warm and brackish water emitted from it. Instinctively one shuddered. What seething masses of heated elements might be surging within a few feet of vcs>1 And the tremors were continuous. The farmhouse was badly served, but a substantially built 18 TTie in J~ctpcLTi. godown, built on a massive base of boulders, stood the strain wonderfully well, though heavy beams had been wrenched and tiles dislodged. The frightened proprietor was exceedingly polite, though he had a woeful tale to teli of some seventeen persons slain in the adjoining hamlet by the wreckful subterranean agitations. Just at the entrance to the Naga- rawa bridge we met Professor Milne. He had come along the line to pursue his scientific investigations, and had just been fruitlessly trying with a line to sound the depths of a gigantic fissure. We might cross the ruined structure he told us, but it would be dangerous. It was, but of that more anon. The approaches were appalling. Only the sterling temper of the metals made access to the bridge, possible. Twenty-five feet below lay the shrunken embankment, and far up the side of the river course the collapse was immense. For fully three hundred yards a subsidence ranging from six to thirty feet deep, and varying from ten to fifty yards wide, was apparent. Cracks, crevices, cleavages, interlaced each other. The luxation had been terrific. Mounting the suspended line, each step causing distinct libration, we ascended the shattered fabric, of what once had been the "strongest" bridge in Japan. It was 1,490 feet long, and consisted of nine spans, five of which were 200 and four 400 feet long, while at its highest point it must have been at least 75 feet over the river-bed. About mid-way it had fallen, a sad wreck, and an impressive commentary on the 'helplessness of mankind in the presence of Nature's fury. Each span was supported by five stupendous columns of cast-iron filled with concrete, and some two feet six inches in diameter at the base. The girders were all wrought iron, stoutly riveted. Yet it had so rocked as to shiver the sleepers like matchwood, and snap off stout rivets like thread. The strong pillars had snapped in the central span two into three, and one into two pieces. The fall, or. the oscillation had carried the outside girder over the inside pillar, and it lay inclined on the stump while a huge fragment of the first column protruded through the opposite side of the metals. Here again the rails had proved staunch. They were carried over the pillar one way, and twisted down the other, but remained unbroken still, though pulsating over the vacillating earth. The effect on the other pillars was variform. Some were flawless, otiiers cracked; and, in one case, each of the three columns were broken at the point of contact with the earth, but had not fallen, while all over the dry watercourse the ground was riven. One could not pass the place without a feeling of awe. Continuing, the sights were similar, and on crossing the Nakasendo, we could note how the made road had been disrempt. Once we met a poor fellow whose dejected mien betokened despair. He had lost father, mother wife and children, and alone had escaped. A boy of ten trotted along, carrying a couple of packages. His mother he said was dead at Ogaki, he was going to Gifu to find if his father still lived. From the crossing of the Nakasendo to the station there THK NAGARAGAWA BUIDGE jB?ctr>t7zqu,a,7te. in J~a,pcirL. 19 was nothing worthy of special note. Tiie station was riddled as if a battery of cannon had made it a target. It was still standing, but at such an angle as to accentuate its dilapida- tion. Interior partitions, tables, walls, desks had been crunched up. The roof let in daylight almost everywhere, and doors had been wrenched off. Goods sheds had been thrown down, and consignments in them wrecked. A train stood in the station on the twisted rails, the only unhurt object visible. We noted the compartments, we remembered the unbroken rails along the route, and should have hailed it as a welcome resting place for the night, had not kind fates prevented. Outside the station was a waste of desolation. Tea-houses fallen, or waiting to fall, and over the western end a gloomy pall of smoke from blackened embers. A pretty little street it had been. Wide and with avenues of trees, and the town itself on the banks of a stream, lay picturesquely under the shadow of two finely-wooded tors, or pointed circular bills, whose verdure, unfortunately, has been calcined by the destructive agent which had consummated the earthquake's havoc. A station official very courteously of- fered to conduct us over the town, and to try and find ac- commodation, as well as to guide us to the house of the Rev. Mr. Chappell, whom we had been requested to inquire for. Shortly afterwards a policeman joined us and explained that we should have to sleep out, as the houses were so badly shaken, those which remained standing, and the earthquake shocks were so frequent, that instructions had been given for no persons to be admitted. This was rather a blank pro- spect, especially as the coolie carrying our bags, and other members of tlie party had not put in an appearance. Gifu was badly damaged, there being in all some 3,000 houses destroyed by fire and earthquake, but the loss of life had been less than at Ogaki. Indeed, it was easy to discern that Ogaki had felt a heavier blow. Tliere the town was demolished by the earthquake, at Gifu but for the fire three- fourths of the houses would still have remained comparatively intact. All the people were camping out under mats, or any rough shelter they could find, but many of the deserted houses looked so little damaged, that if permitted, most people would have had little fear of sleeping in them. The post-office had stood wonderfully well. It is a foreign built building, and from the exterior exhibited few signs of the shock. But internally a ceiling had collapsed, killing two operators instantaneously. Just glancing at tlie town we made for the house of the Rev. Mr. Chappell. At one time it must have been prettily situated, and its surroundings charming. Now it stands a battered mass amidst the debris of neigbouring ruin. We found Mr. and Mrs. Chappell located in a rude tent made of shoji and mats. There they had congregated around them several destitute Japanese who shared that little space in common by day and night.' We were total strangers but were awarded a most kindly welcome. They insisted on our having a cup of tea, and though we outwardly remonstrated, The Ecir>thqiLCL~h.e, in, J'ccpctn. we perhaps were inwardly delighted to receive hospitality under such circumstances. For we had tramped since eleven without bite or sup, and it was now seven-thirty. Our bags, with the provender they contained, we could not ascertain the whereabouts of, and to get food, in a foodless town, wa impossible. But Mr. CliappelPs kindness did not cease here. He listened to our narration of the impossibility of obtaining accommodation, and insisted on the Japanese setting up for us some slwji and tatami, besides getting some futon so that we might rest for the night. We did so, and so well was tlie work performed that "camping out" was transformed from a privation to a pleasure. Mrs. Chappell, a little nervous lady, has undergone a a terrible strain, and nothing but her husband's resolution to adhere to the spot could induce her to stay another moment in the town. He says he wi^l not desert the destitute people be may assist, a determination which we need not characterize. Mrs. Chappell at the time of the occurrence was in bed, her husband being absent at Akasaka. The slioji fell in on her on the one side, and the wall collapsed on the other. In great fright she rushed on to the verandah, just in time to see the house of the servants collapse. She called her boy, and 'on his arrival he pulled back the wall sufficiently to allow her to pass, when she escaped into the garden in her nightdress. The houses all round fell, and the had to dress in the garden. Since then she had to dress in the garden. Since then she had not taken off her clothes, having to sleep on the ground. The shock on the nerves, of a woman already overstrung can be imagined. On the arrival of night, the conflagration added to the horrors of the constant quakings, but, although coming very near, the flames left their ruined house unmolested. The house is in a state of collapse, the study ceiling having fallen through, and at any moment the whole place may come down with a run. The Rev.. Mr. Chappell was at Akasaka at the time of the disaster. He was just dressing, and had to come down from the house by clinging to the shojt, as it was impossible for him to walk. Looking into the street he saw a girl thrown down by the concussion. Fatigue made us sleep soundly in spite of the constant tremors, and maugre the fact that ail night long tom-toms, and cymbals were beaten and trumpets blown to keep the people on the alert in case of a further catastrophe. Just afteiL midnight I was awakened by a tremendous booming sound, and felt the ground hearving heavily. The screams of the people, and the crash of one or two of the already damaged houses, the alarmed cries of the Japanese in Mr. Ghappell's tent made one feel somewhat daunted. But the shock was of short duration, and a<e borne by, having just been extricated from some ruined structure. The temple was knocked about most unmercifully. The huge granite columns 1(5 or 18 ft. .high at tlit- entrance, on which rested a rectangular block, were leaning at an acute angle against the lantern stand, and in imminent danger of being precipitated. A small river divides Gifu into two parts, and it was the stream which prevented the total calcination of the town. It was littered as at Ogaki with masses of debris. The little ' foot bridge over it was started, and terribly shaken. That tiny streak of waier formed the line of division. On the left were the smouldering cinders of 2,000 homes, on the right, a shattered town partially prostrated, and partially tottering. Three godowns had withstood the flames, and although begrimed and sepia-tinted with soot, they stood alone, cracked and leaning, but standing still, and making blank desolation more prominent. Already, however, the courageous, but homeless people were at work. Shocks were continuous, but .this did not prevent them working assiduously at the erection of new sheds whose frame-work was exactly identical with that of the thousands overthrown. But the fumes were malodorous, and the si^ht of scorched bones was not one to dwell upon. We retraced our steps through the mournful little street, and having bid our worthy and consid- erate, though suffering host, adieu, started -in kuruma with intent to reach Nagoya. We did, but by a circuitous route. From a Government official we had heard that. Mr. Iguchi, of the Seismological Department, had been sent for to visit Hakusan, the snow-capped peak which towered up in the distance some 45 miles beyond. Rumour said that this valley was in a frightful state of devastation, and we were anxious for a glimpse of it, though well knownig that we could not extend our investigation very far. Arriving at the railway station the officials gave dread accounts of this val- ley and of Takatoi-mura a small town of only a little over a thousand inhabitants, and in which, with the hamlets at T?ie JZctTt7i.qiia.ke. In Japan. hand, we were informed 700 people were killed. This we now learn is an exaggeration, the total only reaching 132, and the seriously injured to 150. The town lies on embankment of the upper Kisogawa. It has totally collapsed and the condition of the people we found truly deplorable. It was only on the previous night that news had reached Gifu of the disaster, the town being oft the main road. The only physician had been killed, and the dying and the dead many of them were stretched out in a little bamboo grove, without any skilled attend- ance. The people seemed utterly paralysed. Every house had fallen. There were none partially standing, as at Gifu and Ogaki, but all smashed into piecemeal. The ground was frightfully broken, great blocks and gaps being frequent. Trees had snapped off, and we were told the bed of the river altered. Leaving here we pushed oh to Yamaguchi, which stands at the entrance to the Neodani valley. Words hardly describe that scene of upheaval. The place is a very small one, yet 80 persons had been killed. Large fissures several feet deep, big patches of land six or eight feet square, sunk down to four or five feet, over which the kuruma had to be lifted, told the awful tale. We could look up the valley, but time would not permit of our venturing further. Of the terrific nature of the disaster, however, some idea may be gathered from the accounts we have been able to collect. The valley follows the course of the Neogawa, and stretches 25 miles from Yamaguchi to the foot of Hakusan. In the valley altogether were 19 small villages having 1,002 houses. Of these 869 are utterly devastated, and of the remainder 101 are merely tottering, while out of the scanty population 205 were killed immediately and 240 horribly maimed. The hill slopes from Takao to Naga- shima, a distance of 18 miles have sunk. The acme of destruction is at Umasaka and Yadani. Here some hill sides have subsided over a hundred feet, burying houses and trees beneath them ; at Midori, a small house was buried in the ground, and only the top of it was visible, the ground appearing to open, and after swal- lowing the house to have closed again, submerging it entire as in a quicksand. Between Midori and Tarumi, a small level plateau, 2,400 yards long by '600 yards wide, has sunk 90 feet, making a depression instead of an elevation. In our excursion we saw several houses which had subsided, but nothing to equal these sub- sidences and upheavals. Later however, after leaving Nagoya and visiting Odai-mura, we noticed an extra- ordinary freak which we will detail presently. . Leaving these scenes of destitution which we could not alleviate, we skirted the town and made for the Nakasendo below Gifu. Mr. Kildoyle's statement that the ground opened under his feet, and that hot water, sand and mud spurted over him, was no longer incredible. There were JtLTt7LqiLCLke. in huge scissions in the surface, with here and there depressions full of water from a subterranean source, and over the paddy fields large tracts of sand, hitherto unknown in the districts. We had still at least twenty-five miles to reach Nagoya and the morning was advancing and so we hurried for Kano-machi, coming into the Nagoyakaido just above it. At least half a dozen trees outside this little village had been broken off', while one large fir, nearly two feet in diameter at the base, had been torn up by the roots. Prior to entering the ruined street we came across a subsidence of gome four or five yards long by eight or nine feet wide and quite five feet deep. In it the inmates of the fallen tenement at the roadside had placed some mats, and an injured man lay there moaning. Processions of little ambulances, each containing a sufferer, were continually met, coming in from some stricken hamlet. Kano-machi consists of a long street winding down a considerable distance, and then turning of at right angles. Some 600 houses in all had been thrown down, twenty-five of which were burnt while a hundred and sixty bodies had already been recovered, and three-hundred were injured. As in the former case, the bamboo grove had been utilised, but more effects had been saved, and although the sufferings were equally intense, the poor stricken creatures racked with pain had at least a little covering. Our kuruma men tried to get a drink, but there was no water to be had, the wells for the time having dried up, a singularity recorded also of the west portion of Gifu. Most of the roofs of the houses had been left intact where they had fallen, and the survivors had cut holes in the thatch, and many of them camped inside. We noticed one house whose roof was ingeniously suspended from trees. It had fallen like all the rest, but the trees around had not come down, and the ingenious proprietor, evidently considered the best thing to be done was to hoist the roof up by tying it to some tall trees, and then erect a new framework under it. It seemed to answer pretty well. Going to the back of the village we saw a woman's body taken from under the debris; she had an infant in her arms. Both had been killed, but there was no mutilation or trace of a wound, in either, but in other cases persons had been crushed into fragments bespattering the timbers with their life's blood, and pre- senting a shocking spectacle. These successive affecting scenes became at length as harrowing as they must be painfully nauseating to our readers, and so we left the desolation and proceeded. Our next destination was to be Kasamatsu. It once stood, where its remains now lie, under the gigantic embankment of the right bank of the Kisogawa, which here is a noble stream. About midway we left the knrnma and struck across to the embankment, ordering the men to . proceed by road. As we came by we had noticed three houses no stronger in outward appearance than their neighbours, yet they showed hardly a crack, some local The. in, -Tap an,. circumstance preventing them from feeling the awful blow inflicted all round. We scaled the bankside, a little "beneath the fine railway bridge which spans the river. As in so many former cases there had been a shrinkage of the ground in front of the bridge, but so far as we could discover the piles were all uninjured. Not so the bank itself. It was massivejy built, not merely of earth and sand, but supported by a base of rocks. How it had oscillated! In some parts it had split through, and big fragments stood isolated, awaiting only heavy rains to make the devastation signally complete. In some places it had subsided into the water to a considera- ble depth, and an awestruck peasant pointed out to us rocks which had never been seen before, and showed us haw the bed had shifted. This we cannot corroborate, as never having seen the river before we could not decide. The banks however, bore unmistakable evidence of fresh inundations at some points, and the receding of the water at others. It was not difficult to locate Kasamatsu. Situate in the centre of a smiling plain, with fields ripe unto harvest, Tadoyama towering on the west, and Hakusan looming faintly to the north Avith a sweep of hills round to the pointed peak of Ibukiyama, it must once have been a lovely spot, the broad rushing waters of the Kisogawa with its clear depths and sandy bed, affording amusement and profitable occupation. Sailing down that- meandering stream winding in and out, through coppices and mountain defiles, till it foams over the bar near Kuwana, must have been pleasant pastime in the gladsome spring days, or in the tinted autumn, while the ferry on the high way and fishing brought subsistence.' Now over it hung a pall of smoke, denser than a London particular, and reeking with that never to-be forgotten odour of cremated bodies. Ogaki, and Gifu we thought could not be surpassed, but here were deeper depths. Out of a population of 16,000, OgaTd's death-roll mustered a thousand. Here they had only 1,100 houses, and about 4,000 population. There was not a house remaining. Nine hundred were burnt or burning, and only on the outer edge stood the remaining 200 utterly demolished. Over 400 had been killed, and more than 1,000 badly injured, so that nearly half the people were prostrated. Scanty was the clothing, mats, and coverings, which those poor wounded beings had. And the sombre" horror of crushed limbs! There were none, or few, at work on those ruins. That holocaust was so awful, the fumes so dreadful, that not even coolies, indifferent as they are, dared disturb those odoriferous heaps. Language cannot paint the solemnity of that scene, imagination cannot exaggerate its terrors, it was a concatenation of death, desolation and agony. Covering our faces with handkerchiefs to ward off if possible the gases rising from those simmering mounds, we came to the landing stage of the ferry. The footpath NlSHI BlWAJJMA, T'7^e in, J~a.pa.Ti.. was broken and disjointed, and partially subsided, so that the kuraina had to be carried down to the water's edge. There we entered the ferry, and crossed the broad expanse, of clear rolling water, bordered on the other side by a stretch of pines, eucalyptus and small cedars, their foliage, autumn-tinged, forming a beautiful harmony of tones while here and there a creeper twining round an oak, showed its blood red leaves. It looked peaceful enough, and but for some yawning fissures near the dry portion of the watercourse, there was nothing to in- dicate the terrible cataclysm which had wrought such havoc on the opposite bank. The little toll-house seemed unshaken, and the road through the pines was as charming as only roads through Japan can be. In happier hours one would have liked to have halted, and enjoyed that fascinating view of river, hill and dale. But the enjoyment was of brief duration. Emerging from the coppice we saw the secluded, wooded hamlet of Kisogawa. Demolition here was not quite so severe, but death had been comparatively as active. Only boasting about a thousand people, 84 lifeless bodies had been recovered and 200 lay awaiting death or a maimed existence. Here we noticed strong traces of what at Ichi-no-miya we were to have more terrible proofs of the eruptions of sand and water. They told us, the people, that the columns had shot up four feet high. It was credible, for over the road was sand an inch deep, and in the interior of some of the houses were yawning fissures, and the wrecked floors were embedded in sand, the water in one or two cases still running. Rice they told us they had none, nor food of any sort, except kaki, and these fetching such fabulous prices that our kuruma men refused to invest. Nor could we get a cup of tea. We should mention however, that en route we had passed several Government carts laden with rice and medical stores for Ogaki and Gifu. Ichinomiya is the centre of four villages Umazaki, Kambe, Okuda and Okori. In these five places and the neighbourhood 957 persons were killed, and 95 badly injured, 16,658 houses being entirely demolished, and 5,748 "left in a very rickety condition. In Ichinomiya alone there were 196 killed and 150 badly hurt while Okuda and Okori, smaller places, suffered even still greater fatalities. Here the action of the earthquake tended most to eruptions. Yawning chasms opened in the floors of the houses shivering the planking into splinters, and hot water, steam, mud and sand had been shot up to a height of five and six feet in some places. Exaggeration some may retort. Perhaps it is, people nearly frightened out of their wits are not the best judges of height. But that water and sand and mud had been emitted we had continual and overwhelming evidence. The effects were pretty similar in each place, but as I have trenched on my readers' patience so long, a description of Ichinomiya must be a type for the others. The in, Tree-enshrouded, the straggling town of Ichinomiya is divided into sections by a sacred grove, and a very fine temple. We had to clamber over the roofs of the houses in the first portion, and at other places to assist our men to get the kuruma over the riven earth. The streets were covered with sand, and going to all that was left of a chaya a gaping fracture fronted us. The wrenched and shat- tered flooring was sand strewn, and so was a shaken remnant of the wall still standing. Out of the clear depths water was welling slowly. Behind had been a garden perhaps a dozen yards square. It was buried two or three inches deep with a new soil, and near one end was a kind of unfinished geyser, or rough casting of one, whence the strange soil had been ejected. Many of the wounded had been taken. to the temple grounds, whither we wended our way. It was amusing to note how deference to officialdom dominated even in the midst of disaster and death. Scarcely standing, even by being shored with stout beams, the little police station was a forlorn sight. But some notable was expected, and from various rubbish heaps had been extricated three chairs, two respectable and one maimed, besides a table and some carpet, and these were being placed in the wrecked room. One badly battered body was being taken out from under a huge baulk, it was mangled out of all resemblance to human shape. And the processions of the dying and the dead were continuous. We followed on to the temple through a park-like avenue of towering pines, sombre eucalyptus, and stately maples, with a winding gravelled walk, by which we reached the sacred fane. At the approach the granite pillars had started, but the wooden arch stood unmoved. The temple buildings however, were many of them in a state of collapse, and great had been the destruction of rare curios. The stupendous columns had tilted, and zigzag lines of cleavage intersected *the courts. Here were gathered the sick, the halt, the lame, the hungry, the homeless, and the bereaved. Hitherto we had been unable to obtain any tea for ourselves or rice for the coolies. Luckily my bag contained some provender and we were able to give the coolies a boiled egg apiece and some bread, in grateful acknowledg- ment of Avhich they brought us water in an uncracked tea-cup. As we opened our stores we were surrounded witlr a famished, woe-begone crowd, who mutely watched our every mouthful and to whom the sight of our provender must have been like the luscious cooling grapes to the tortured Tantalus. We gave them what we could spare. It was little enough, and they fought each other for it with wolfish rapacity, one old woman snatching a piece from a child. We bought a few kaki a pedlar had on sale, and it was pitiful to see the scramble as we distributed them. They stood close around us while we hurriedly ate our scanty meal until the familiar boom of the coming shock scattered them, for we sat under the granite archway which T=^TT - ""^""Vi V =-" f?- v ""= a \= gzrT^^^ps^^^^V^".-?^^^::- NAGOYA POST AND TELEGRAPH OFFICE. TJie. JE?ar > t7iqu,ci7i:e in, J~apcirL. distinctly oscillated. There is little more to say of Ichino- miya. It is mostly in ruins, though amid a desolation of wreckage we saw four houses standing almost unshaken. Kuroda and Kiyosu there is no need to describe. They are demolished. So also is the little village leading to Biwajima which stands on the confines of Nagoya. Indeed it was to Biwajima, the suburb of Nagoya, that the sensa- tional news first received referred. It was partly thrown down, partly burnt, partly little injured. We passed through a street of a hundred yards without a single house betraying a sign of the ordeal they had withstood, and then we should come upon a scene of utter devastation, succeeded by a patch of blackened ruins, the grim evidence of fire supplemented by that nauseous odour of slowly simmering human flesh. But the people were all in the streets those who were left. Sound or unsound, houses had few charms but many terrors, and they preferred dis- comfort to immolition. So they brought their bedding out of doors, those who had any to bring, and the others lay on mats, and boards, and anything that served to place them above the cold ground. The loss of life had amounted to 140, while at Kiyosu it had totalled 63. At Kiyosu the little station was upturned, and the line twisted and dis- torted. Here in Biwajima the line runs through just before crossing the river. A big embankment approaches the bridge, and a massive masonry had spanned the street. The embankment was cracked and subsided, leaving the rails high in the air, while all the masonry of the arch had fallen, the rails alone connecting the two portions. It was a well built arch, the bricks still adhering to each other, though having dropped 20 feet. The viaduct over the river was not much injured. Here and there a rivet had started, a sleeper splintered, a rail deflected, but this was the utmost extent observable. Not so the wooden footbridge over the river higher up, over which all traffic had to pass. The sturdy central piles had snapped or sunk on the one side, and broken midway on the other, so that one side was ten or twelve feet above the water, and the other had been precipitated into the river bed. Thus there was an angle of about 45 degrees, and kuruma passing had to be supported to pre- vent over-turning. We were now in the pleasant city of Nagoya. It was fortunately not destroyed but 1,052 houses had been over- thrown, and 171 killed, besides 270 injured. The stupen- dous castle wall on the western side had stood the shock nobly, but on the south there was a gigantic breach some twelve or fifteen yards long, from the crest of the embra- sure to the bed of the moat. Heavy modern artillery firing at short range could not have been more effective. A small watch tower was dilapidated, and the commandant's quarters were riddled by falling chimneys. Otherwise but for the people camping in the streets through fear, there was little to indicate that Nagoya had suffered, so The, tTL J~aptui,. far as we could notice in our ride to the house of the Rev. and Mrs. J. Cooper Robinson. Both received us most hospitably. Their house had not suffered much, though they had camped out one night through fright. Mr. Robinson said : At the time of the earthquake there was a prayer meeting in the Eiwa Gakko and about thirty people were there including the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Van Dyke, Mr. and Mrs. Klein, Mr. McAlpine, Miss Wimbish, Mrs. Albright and Dr. Worden. The building shook so badly that they thought it was about to fall, and all ran out the nearest way at the side. Just as they did so two huge chimneys fell on them killing a husband and wife (Japanese) instantaneously and very badly injuring their child. Two others, a man and a boy, were so much hurt that they died directly after. Mr. and Mrs. Van Dyke were buried under the debris, the former receiving a severe cut in the head, and Mrs. Van Dyke having her hands crushed. Mr. Van Dyke was insensible for a few moments, but on regaining con- sciousness he immediately set about assisting the others. Finding himself weakening he went to his house, and it was then found that his wound was a very serious one. Our preaching house suffered little or no damage. Dr. Worden's house is almost wrecked, and Mr. McApine's house is so much shaken that it will have to be re-built. It was about 4.30 in the afternoon when we set out for Yokkaichi. We could not get a steamer and it was essen- tial to be in Yokkaichi by the morning so we made off with- out delay on a thirty mile ride. Passing through Nagoya we noted that the damages were all on the western side. The normal school was wrecked by the fall of chimneys but luckily the boys were absent. The fine brick post and telegragh office in Sakai-machi was demolished, and four of the operators killed. A terrible fate overtook the convicts in the prison, ten of them being killed in their cells and others injured. The hospital of Aichi Ken is also wrecked and the six immates had to be placed in tents built on the grounds. All through the city the people were camping out. Passing on to Atsuta we came to the Cotton mill whose destruction a correspondent thus describes: The Owari Cotton Mill, costing $360,000, was shaken to pieces, t"he smoke-stack wa sbroken off towards the top, and the tower containing elevator and water tank fell upon the main building, crashing through the roof and two floors into the basement, leaving a hole 16 ft. square in each floor to mark its descent. The mill is of brick, two stories,. 750 ft. long, and 170 ft. wide. The northern end suffered comparatively little, the machinery both above and below being almost intact. But the southern half is almost a complete wreck, the three-gabled roof collapsing in such a way as to ruin most of the machinery on the second floor and part of that on the ground floor. Of the 15,800 spindles only about 5,000 are intact. The engines were not much damaged. Of the 450 workmen engaged in this mill,. 35 were killed and 100 wounded. ODVI-MUBA OWARI. in Japan. For a long distance after leaving Atsuta the traces of the shock were slight, and we anticipated that we had finished the list, but more was to come. Atsuta had 342 houses utterly destroyed, 795 semi-ruined and a death roll of 50, with 135 seriously hurt. The story was the same wounds, out-door camping, pitiable destitution. But from there it was not until we reached Maegasu that the story was repeated. Then almost every wayside house, every little hamlet told the thrilling tale. The sun had set when we passed the shattered bridge, but it was still light enough to see the tremendous fissures in the dyke of the Shonaigawa. A frightened inhabitant informed us that either the river bed had shifted or the ground had moved for the houses were 100 feet away from their former position compared with the stream. This statement has since been also given in the native press. They also informed us that some of the ground had been elevated with the houses standing on it. This however, we doubt, the magnitude of the subsidence close at hand conveying only the impression that the land adjacent had risen. From Odai-mura on for miles the ground was broken, and the wounded and destitute people sleeping or. moaning by the wayside was a saddening spectacle. At one place we had to cross an embankment by the side of a stream. The embankment had subsided and the stream found a new out- let, and we had to cross in a small boat. Some places the kuruma had to be carried, and as all the time the tremors did not cease, our men became so alarmed at the frightful chasms and the shakings, that just as we reached the Kiso- gawa they declined point-blank to proceed further. There was nothing for it but to obtain boats. It was a lovely star- light night, and although the air was chilly there was a tinge of romance in going down the stream with its wooded banks and making over the bar round the point for kuruma. The old boatmen had strange stories to tell of rough waters without wind. The bay had become so agitated that the S.S. Suruga-maru had to put back to Yokkaichi the preceding day, while the S.S. Mino-maru expected from Yokohama had not arrived. We felt now and again a vibration of the boat, but there was nothing further of interest until we entered Kuwana. There the principal damage was two or three houses down, and some of the public buildings smashed by falling chimneys. This is the more singular as on the last occasion when an earthquake occurred in the same district the town was totally destroyed. It was early morning when we reached Yokkaichi, and we had just time for a few hours' sleep before catching the train. The town had not suffered except for some smoke-stacks, but it must have felt the blow for we were rudely awakened by a severe shock. The trip from Yokkaichi to Kusatsu did not add to our earthquake experience, but if Kobe residents wish to see some of the most beautiful ravines in Japan they should walk from Seki to Tsuge, a distance of nine miles. c " porr) S. SEKIYA, Rigaku Hakushi, late professor of the Imperial University, and who is a high authority on Seismology, has favoured us by sending several letters on the late earthquake, since the 30th October. As he is now sick, and cannot visit the places to make scientific investi- gations, he has sent several letters on the subject to the native papers and his friends, and also sent copies to us. The first letter is to quiet down the people suffering from the earthquake, and he says in it that, so far as experience goes, the severest shock, which causes so much damage, is felt only once, and the smaller shocks, which are felt after- wards, are not to be feared. The second letter is addressed to business men, such as carpenters, masons, brick-layers, &c., and says that, as there is no way of preventing the earthquake beforehand, they must try to reduce its effects that is to say, they must study the relation of earthquakes .and construction so as to make buildings strong to withstand any shocks. The carpenters, brick-layers, masons, plasterers, &c., who have direct relation with the subject, and have previous experience on the matter of their profession, should fully investigate the subject. The ruins of houses and other things should be kept in pictures or photographs for future references, &c. The third letter is also on earthquakes and construction. It says that Italy and Spain have construc- tion laws for the erection of buildings which will withstand the shocks of earthquake, and goes on to say that, since the Seismometer was invented in Japan, and we are now able to investigate the motions, &c., the progress of architecture in earthquake countries can now be put on a firmer foundation. It concludes with saying that the Government should either issue a construction law, or build model buildings in Mino and Owari, and thus let the people build the houses strong enough to withstand the earthquakes. Owing to the pressure on our space we are unable to give The. trL J~ctpcLTi. 31 his letters in full. His fourth letter we will give a little more extended. It says: " Since the shocks are still being felt, the people in the districts which suffered most are still frightened. As I am a Seismologist, I have sent out several letters to comfort and quiet them. What I said before, was, that history shows us that, though strong shocks are sometimes felt for several days, such eases are very rare. Generally the severe shock which causes so much damage, occurs only once, and the shocks felt afterwards are not to be feared. As I sent out the letter in a hurry, I was unable to give so full a statement, as I am going to give now. When a severe earthquake occurs, the shocks are repeated constantly for several days after, some of which may be pretty strong, and smaller shocks are generally felt for one, two, five, or six months after, and sometimes even for one or two years. The shocks become less in their power and occurrence as the time passes. Japanese history shows .this, as will be seen from the table annexed to this letter; the history of other countries shows it also. So that the shocks which are occurring at present, cannot be taken as a sign of another serious earthquake. The chief cause of the earthquake is the breaking and falling of the strata of the earth, which breaks at the thinnest part of the crust. The late earthquake was, I think, caused by the breaking of the strata in Mino and Owari, which have a thinner crust than the neighbouring provinces. The smaller shocks, which we are now feeling, are caused by the smaller breakings caused by the broken parts settling into position. The shocks will continue till the inner parts of the earth are arranged and so to say quieted, and so, according to my opinion, they will occur once or several times a day for one or two months, and will not cease till a year after. The earth- quake is the most strange of natural catastrophes. At the time of great earthquake, many persons run mad by fright r and though not going so far, many become sick, or waste away their property, and some injure their health by camping out for a long time, and thus incur one evil by trying to avoid another." The professor then tabulates a list of the chief earthquakes recorded in Japan, and deduces from them the inference that only one disastrous shock is felt, the others being minor ones. c A. VlSIT TO THE NEODANI VALLEY. (Specially Written for the " Hyogo News " Pamphlet l>y tlie Rev. W. Weston.) ^jfp'HE terrible scene of desolation and suffering at Ogaki * has been so graphically painted in the earlier pages of the "Hyogo News" pamphlet, that 1 need add nothing to the description there given. After spending an hour and a half in visiting various parts of the town now invested with such sad interest, I left at two o'clock in a kuruma for Gifu. The road thither lies for the most part through a very fertile district, and now and then the scene was so calm and bright that it was hard to realize that the country round had suffered such a terrible catastrophe. But the fissured footpath, the ruined bridges, and collapsed cottages met with at almost every turn in the road, told an all too mournful tale. At Mieji, Honden, and Godo little was to be seen but heaps * of entirely ruined dwellings. Here and there a cracked godown was still standing, but this only served to accentuate the prevailing desolation. In some places a river has to be crossed: but the ordinary bridge having been wrecked and carried away by the current, a small temporary one lias been put up to replace it, arid over this we have to pass. Shortly before reaching the village of Roku on the banks of the Ibigawa, our road joins the Nakasendo and this is followed until Godo is passed, the old wooden bridge at the latter place being woefully twisted about until it has the appearance of a toboggan track. Looking down from this bridge along the banks of the Nagaragawa msm I I ** mmt tl mjjmi > . . The. in J~cipciTi. 33 to the great iron structure spanning the river and carrying the railway track, one begins to realize more clearly the tremendous forces that have been working destruction on all hands. The embankment has been quite spoilt, subsidences appearing here and there to a depth of nearly 20 feet, the surface of the ground being cracked in every direction. The railway bridge itself had been terribly handled, but this too has already been described. By the time I arrived in the devastated district, all the traces of human suffering, apart from the interior of the various hospitals I visited, had been removed; but at Godo I saw a funeral procession just about to start for the burying ground. It was that of a little child, and only in one respect did it differ from such as one has met with before. There was the same apparent light- heartedness about the mourners (if.it is not a contradiction to use the term, for they might have been going to a feast rather than to a funeral), but the hearse was not the same as usual. There was evidently either no carpenter to make the ordinary neat case of white wood, or else no money to pay for it, for its place was taken by a frame of bamboo covered with white paper. This was the only sign of death I met with, though the number of newly- made graves in almost every little village cemetery seemed to say something unusual had befallen the neighbourhood. At various points in the road lovely views of snow- clad mountains rose up in the clear autumn air, and the grand masses of Ontake, the Komagatake of Shim- shiu, and of the great range of Koshiu, afforded a sight as impressive as it was unexpected. It was very interesting now to see one's friends of last summer's holiday in their new garb, for the two peaks first-named were the last I climbed just three months ago, during the closing days of an intensely interesting tour. Shortly before reaching Gifu it was necessary to leave the kuruma and walk, the road being so badly rent and torn as to make it impassable for vehicles of any kind. Here and there a straw string, stretched between a couple of bamboo poles, warned the traveller that the road just there was dangerous to walk on. For some distance the embankment by the side of the Nagaragawa, along which we had to pass before reaching Gifu, was terribly damaged, but matters mended as we entered the outskirts of the town. - Here, on the left, we passed a huge temple, still standing though a good deal damaged, several stone lanterns having been shattered and thrown down in numerous fragments. Eventually I found myself at the house of my friend the Eev. A. F. Chappell, of the C. M. S., who has been working in Gifu for the last three years. It was in a fortnight since he had slept in his own house, for it had Buffered too much to allow of its being occupied with safety until the needed repairs had been executed. A temporary erection had been put out in the garden, consisting of a rough shelter of shoji, fusuma, and amado, Q, tent roof being stretched over the top as an additional . shelter from the rain. The edifice was not remarkable for its stability, and one day at tiffin we were startled by the falling in of two of the amado which formed the ceiling, my host nearly being smitten on the head by the descending boards. He is, however, so accustomed to such strange experiences by this time that neither the breaking in of the roof above his head, nor the earthquake shock of the ground under his feet seems to disturb his equanimity. Soon after my arrival we walked through that part of the town which had been so 'completely devastated by the ravages of fire following on the violence of the earthquake itself. The flames had devoured more than half the 5,600 houses which had composed the township, but it was when we approached the foot of the tree-clad slopes of Inabayama, on the east of the town, that the destructive force of the fire chiefly showed itself. Here once stood the chief theatres, temples, and houses of ill-fame, a combination as significant as it should be unexpected. All these had been swept away, only a few charred timbers and stone lanterns marking the sites. A long broad road, lined on either side with matsu trees and passing up several flights of stone stepa leads up to the chief Shinto shrine in this part of the country, the Government officials of Gifu being obliged to come periodically to worship at it. The original structure has been burnt, not a vestige remaining, but its place has been hurriedly supplied by a' small wooden box, before which are a few flowers and go-lid. When the fire first broke out, a number of people came running towards this little valley feeling that this of all spots would be safe from the flames, and soon a great pile of goods of all kinds was heaped up along the wide avenue under the trees. To the dismay and terror of the fugitives this caught fire and so swiftly did the flames literally rush on, that a number of persons were unable to flee to a place of safety and so met with a horrible death. The lower branches of the trees took fire and conducted the devouring element right up to the venerated shrine itself, then finishing the work by reducing it to a heap of ashes. The hopelessness of the situation was rendered more terrible by the appalling discovery soon after the conflagration broke out, that at the first shock of the earthquake all the wells in the town had ceased their supply of water, thus making it impossible to overcome the ravages of the fire in the usual way. Probably the whole of the place would have been destroyed but for the fact that a small river barred the The. J2ctr>tfiqu,a,7ze in Japan. 35 progress of the fire and caused it to keep to the east of the town. Returning to Mr. Chappell's compound, we were later on joined by Mr. Cooper Robinson, of Nagoya, who had been on a tour of inspection among a number of the villages off the more frequented roads, having ridden right through from Nagoya on his bicycle. During the course of the evening they two had a council of war, and the night was far advanced before sleep came. Now and then a shock was felt, accompanied by a curious rumbling like the muttering of far-off thunder or the rolling of a iieavy cart over a wooden bridge. On the following day, Chappell and I were off at 7 o'clock on a clear cold morning for an expedition up the Neodani, (i.e., the valley of the Neogawa). The first stage of our journey lay over the north portion of the great Gifu plain, and a forcible reminder of the additional privations to which the distressed people will soon be subjected made itself evident as we saw the glittering hoar-frost lying white on the ground where as yet it was shaded from the morning rays of the sun. Immediately after crossing the wooden bridge over the Nagaragawa to the north of the town, our attention was arrested by the extraordinary way in which the embankment was twisted and torn. It was not only impossible for the jinrikishas to take us over, but it was not an easy matter to convey ourselves along the top. At length we were able to take to our kuruma again, but even when passing across the level plain, we were obliged to get out from time to time to cross in safety spots which were now rendered impassable to all but foot-passengers. It was 9 o'clock before we reached Yamaguchi, at the south entrance to the Neo valley, our route having taken us through a constant succession of ruined hamlets and over damaged roads. Our progress had hitherto been so slow that we here were obliged to hire an additional man for each kuruma, otherwise we could hardly tell where nightfall might overtake us, and my companion was not provided with a passport that would allow him to sleep outside the limits of Gifu town. After some delay we again set off, and our attention was at once attracted by the sight of a big landslip high up a hill-flank on the opposite side of the valley. A good road has been constructed along the foot of the hills there, but in this spot, like so many others, it has been rendered impassable. The road we ourselves were now on was once as good as a road could be. It is no exaggeration to say that it would make a first-rate bicycle path for miles were it not for the terrible way it has suffered from the violence of the shocks it has undergone. For some distanced passes underneath precipitous hillsides down which have thundered frequent avalanches of rocks and stones leaving great bare patches and streaks of yellow on the 36 The. E.CL-rtHqii.a.'k.e, In, J'cLpa.TL. heights above. Here and there an enormous mass of stone has landed with such force in the middle of the road as to leave a great hole to mark its point of contact, and then the next bound has sent it far out into the paddy-field that lies beyond. And so it lies, to tell, until in the course of ages it shall have weathered away, the farmer of years to come, what an awful shock it was that brought it there in 1891. Sometimes after a stretch of beautifully smooth road we are brought to a standstill by a bank of fresh brown earth and rocks now covering the path. But we manage to get across, gaining as we do so, a glimpse througli the open space that has been torn through the trees and shrubs below, of the clear emerald waters of the river a hundred feet down, and it requires no stretch of imagination to see that only a slight slip is needed to send us to join it. One could not help feeling a certain sense of insecurity at times, and one place in particular remains in my memory as an unusually 'creepy' one. It was where the road makes a bend and passes under- neath an overhanging cliff, and as the scattered fragments of rock lying on the ground a few yards away show what has happened there, one cannot help an uncomfortable feeling of the possibility of history repeating itself at a moment highly inconvenient to our personal safety. However, all goes well, and by 10.45 we have reached Gimbara, once one of the chief villages in this part of the valley. Before arriving we had passed a string of kurumas coming from there, and found that the courteous salute we had received from the thoughtful looking soldierly man in the leading one was from Prince Komatsu, now on his return from a tour of inspection in the parts we were visiting ourselves. Gimbara is a mere heap of ruins, every house without exception having been levelled to the ground. The Shinto temple exhibits a picture of the most extraordinary annihila- tion, being a mere heap of timber. Our kuruma-men stopped at an open space on the righthand side of the road where we saw something was happening. It proved to be a couple of doctors on an errand of mercy to this poor little hamlet in the hills. On a table on the ground were a few bottles and instruments, whilst inside an improvised hut adjoining lay a couple of children just about to have their wounds dressed. One of them was a girl of about 14, with an injured leg, the other a poor little lad of 5 with a great gash in his thigh at least a foot long. It looked as if it ought to have been sewn up, but the doctor in attendance merely dressed it with some yellow stuff. It was most touching to hear the child's piteous cry of "itai, itai" ("it hurts, it hurts"), as he besought the doctor to leave off and spare him such awful pain. The little sufferer's mother sat by in great distress, evidently herself suffering with him in a way only a mother can at her darling's agony. Of all the sights of human pain FUNAJIACHI, The, in, J'ctpcLTL. I met in this afflicted district, I think this sight of childish woe was the most affecting. Close by was a still more impressive reminder of the power of the earthquake, so far as regards external appearance, in the sight of the village temple now no more than a mere mass of logs and chips piled on each other in a shapeless heap. But worse was to come, for in a few hundred yards along the road a great land-slip blocked the way, and we now saw why the jinrikisha had been left behind at Gimbara. Here all traces of the former splendid path had been obliterated by the fall of the tons of earth and rocky fragments tbat had been rolled down from above. The view as we turned the corner just outside the village was very striking, all the" neighbouring hillsides shewing traces of the way in which their masses had been disturbed, and many a bare slope told a tale of loss of the shrubs and trees formerly growing in wild profusion on every hand. Making our way across the debris before us we again found ourselves on a portion of the original road, but only for a moment, for this suddenly ended and a strange sight confronted us. A fair sized wooden bridge had once connected the bank on which we stood with the opposite side, but the rude shock had caused a sub- sidence of about 15 feet or more, with the result that the shattered structure that should have landed us across the stream now stood up at such an angle as would have landed us, had we attempted a passage, in free space. It was a curious spectacle, but stranger sights still were in store, and my only regret is that I am unable to adequately de- scribe just what I saw. A little further on, a small hill top had slipped down and overwhelmed two houses and the five unfortunate inmates they contained. Hinata-mura, like nearly every other hamlet we passed was a mere heap of ruined cottages. And yet, a little beyond this, in the middle of all the sad desolation elsewhere, we were met with the sight of a scene of perfect peace and loveliness. This was at a point in the road, or rather on a landslip covering it about a ri and a half from Midori. Right down below is the Noe river, and on the opposite bank to our left, a group of half a dozen rustic cottages are clustered together under the shadow of the maple-clad hills, at whose foot they nestle. Each one has its own neat little garden encircled with a fence bright with a growth of some creeper of the most vivid green, and in the background the warm hues of the maples finish a picture beautiful as it was unexpected. So far as one could tell, these cottages had not felt the shock at all, and yet the hill-side on which we stood, a mere stone's throw away, had been shaken with such force as io cause the worst land slide we met with during our walk of seven miles. Passing by this we again got a sight of the road which now has crossed over to the bank on the west 38 The, JScLrthqiLCLke. tn J'a/pctn.. side of the river. Seeing this I naturally asked why we too did not descend and follow its example. The reply was that there -was now no means of crossing the river, and such proved to be the case. Almost every trace of the bridge had been carried away and we had to climb round the shoulder of the hill by a steep and rugged path which rose for some distance high above the level of the broad smooth road we could see curving round in a most tantalizing way on the opposite side. By and by, however, our narrow track makes a sudden descent, and we find ourselves on the edge of the stream at one of its broadest parts, just where, near a collection of houses called Takao, it makes a sudden sweep to get round the foot of the hill whose slopes we had been traversing. Here we found a bridge had been erected to replace the one whose destruction we had just been regretting. But its construction was of the strangest possible character. It did not consist of one straight line of barkless fir-trees like so many bridges one has crossed over mountain streams. Instead of this it spanned the now swift-flowing waters in a curi.ous zigzag fashion, and if such an image were admissible, one might almost say it was like perambulating a streak of forked lightning. For the lines were not only inconveniently crooked but the fir-trees had been so recently stripped of their bark, that their rounded surface was most painfully smooth, and it required a fair amount of steadiness to reach the other side with a dry skin. Still this was accomplished in due course, and we again breathed more freely. Between Takao and Midori a curious depression is met with at a place where the embankment running across some rice-fields is seen to have sunk some 20 feet or more, though the road is still intact. Passing along this portion of the road, a scramble up the broken ground at the far end landed us on the ordinary level, and we soon found ourselves afr. Midori, the place where the most remarkable subsidences in the Neo valley are to be found. The village formerly numbered some 54 houses, but all have been laid low, and out of the little population 13 persons were killed, and 28 severly injured. Although such a large number of the houses in this valley have been demolished, the loss of life has been proportionately less than in such places as Ogaki, etc., owing to the fact, that fire has played so small a part in the work of destruction. The people have still their recent crops to help them, and this too gives them an ad- vantage over those dwellers in the towns and villages of the Gifu plain whose possessions largely consisted in what had been contained in the houses now almost wiped out by the ravages of the flames. Leaving the pathway on our right, we walked to the houses, or rather their ruins, situated at the foot of the hills on the left of the valley. Here we saw a house that had sunk bodily jEci7>th.q[u,CL7te, tTL J~apa,n,. 39 into the ground so as to leave only the roof appearing from the pool of dirty water surrounding it. The whole structure has gone down some 20 feet, and so has the entire hill-side which overshadowed it. The upper portion of this hill once hid from view the crest of the mountain ridge on that side of the valley, but its subsidence has lowered it in such a way as to now make it quite, visible. It was indeed an extraordinary sight, and one could scarcely realize how it had come to pass. A little further up we came across the little village temple of Saikoji not shattered into fragments, like so many others, but thrown over on its side. When the shock came a poor woman was worshipping within its walls, little dreaming how soon she was to be hurried into that unseen world with which she was seeking to hold, even though blindly, some sort of communion. Turning from this spot to the road near by, we again found that another extraordinary subsidence had taken place, the road for a distance of 1,000 yards having sunk about 20 feet, the houses at this end of the village now lying in ruins in the hollow thus formed, and right on the east side of the valley a sort of lake has been formed, some 400 yards long by 100 to 250 wide. On the other side of the valley severe traces of the shaking which the hills have undergone are apparent, and even while we were on the spot an omnious rumbling made itself heard. After an hour or so spent in viewing these strange and awful scenes, we at last had to retrace our steps, and at about 4.30 found ourselves once more at Gimbara, where we had left our kurumas. Rain overtook us before we reached Yamaguchi, but at last it cleared up, and soon the moon .came out from its hiding place behind the dark masses of clouds and gave us its light as we hurried over the narrow rugged paths across the plain to Gifu, where we eventually arrived after an absence of 14 hours from the time we left. The next morning was devoted to a hurried, though intensely interesting visit to some of the large villages lying in the plain, to the south of Gifu. Shortly after getting clear of the outskirts of the town, we crossed the Nakasendo and found ourselves in the village of Kano, which is really a sort of suburb of Gifu. Terrible was the havoc that had been wrought here, some 600 houses having been destroyed r whilst over 1 60 persons had perished and 300 had been severely injured. Further on comes Kasamatsu, once a pleasant town on the north side of the great embankment of " the Kisogawa, but now a mere waste of charred debris with here and there a godown standing up gaunt and begrimed in the midst of all the desolation. Of the 4,000 inhabitants more than 400 had perished and over 1,000 had been severely hurt. Passing along the main street we. came across a curious sight. The owner of one of the ruined houses had The in, Japan. succeeded in getting the rubbish all cleared away from the site, and all was now ready to begin to build afresh. But, before making a fresh venture, he evidently wished to try to ensure a more enduring prosperity for his hearth and home. The motto of the old English Public School, 'Stetfortuna domus? was to be his, and here he was to be seen setting about what he felt to be the surest way of gaining his end. A small piece of straw matting was stretched on the ground in the middle of the space that had been cleared of debris, and on this set the owner of the house that once stood on the spot. On the mat in front of him sat a Shinto priest, with a little table on which Avere placed a few offerings of fruit and some paper go-hei. As they sat there the priest was engaged in prayer invoking the protection of an unseen power on the new house that was to rise on the spot where disaster had befallen the former dwelling. The sight was very touching, but we noticed that the man did not seem in the least disconcerted by- the fact that he was being watched by curious eyes to whom his action spoke far louder than words. A few steps further on brought us to the top of the em- bankment, now so rent and crumbled that the kurumas could not be ridden over it. Looking into the hospital for a few minutes we saw a group of injured people waiting their turn for medical treatment, though the hospital itself was of the simplest description, merely consisting of a few poles support- ing plain straw matting as walls and roof. Making our way along the broken road as well as we could, we at length de- scended to a pathway running across the rice-fields, in which, here and there we noticed the curious phenomenon of the white sand that has exuded from underneath the surface of the ground and covered large patches of the cultivated land. At short intervals we passed through little hamlets of ruined cottages, and eventually reached the limit of our journey on arriving at the large village of Takegahana, whose destruction had been no less signal than that of Kasarnatsu. Here once stood 1,200 houses, but now all have been laid low, 900 being shattered by the earthquake shock and the rest succumbing to the ravages of fire. Of the population of over 4,000, 370 had been killed and 1,000 more or less severely wounded. Entering the hospital, we saw more evidences of suffering than I had j'et noticed, excepting at Ogaki. The case of one poor old woman was particularly touching, and as Ave stopped to express a word of sympathy with her woes, she tried to raise herself a little as she lay on her futon, and apologised for being unable to make a polite salute in the usual way owing to her helplessness. On enquiring the extent of her injuries we found she had been hurt in the head, her arm had been broken, and her leg had been amputated. And in the midst of it all her main feeling is one of regret at not being The, Ea.Tt'h.qTLCL'k.e, in, J~CLpeen sent crashing through the trees, leaving a regular lane to mark their track, others have partially buried themselves in the earth on the mountain side. A path once led right, up the summit, but the last part of this has been entirely destroyed and it was a slippery task to make one's way to the loose talus of stones and earth that now cover it. Down below great rents are seen and indeed the whole spectacle is one of the strangest imaginable. Certainly the spot is one of the most interesting in all this now notorious neighbourhood of strange scenes. A quick descent brought us to our quarters once more, but to-night we discarded the erection which had sheltered my companion for the last fortnight and ventured to occupy the partly ruined house for the first time since its occupants had been so summarily evicted. But the night passed unevent- fully though now and then a slight shock was felt, accompanied by the curious rumbling already noticed. It was only as we were sitting at breakfast the next morning that we really had a really brisk shaking up, and I instinctively started up with a look at my host which said "Oughtn't we to run?" But Tlie. in, J~apcL~rL. the calment of glances, speaking a most reasuring "No," was the only reply I had. There are a good many strange things one Ciin get accustomed to by constant practice, even as it is said that in that way eels get used to being skinned, but an earthquake is surely the exception which proves that there is a rule. And yet here is a man who is apparently entirely unperturbed at all these tremors! Indeed, my friend seems to be a standing contradiction of the saying current in this country that at the first experience of an earthquake one feels a sense of amusement; at the second a feeling of dislike; but at the third a desire to get out of the way without ceremony or delay. A lovely morning again greeted me as I started, in com- pany with a coolie whom I had chartered to carry my l>ag as far as Ogaki, by way of the railway line from Gifu station. The track itself was being rapidly repaired, but. it is the bridges which hare been broken down that will cause the chief trouble. After a walk of a mile or two from the sta- tion I found a ballast engine with a few waggons, which were being tilled with earth for mending the embankment lower down, and as I came up with this unexpected sight, I was very courteously asked if I should like a lift, an offer I gladly accepted, and so a saving of several miles was effected, for the train did not halt until within a short distance of the great Nagaragawa bridge. This massive iron structure has sunk in the middle and some of the piers have been shattered and the work of mending it must be a very arduous one. Leaving the train here, I walked on, passing through the great bridge over the Jbigawa, which too had been a good deal damaged, though not so much as the one I have just mentioned. Again, I was delighted to- find another ballast train waiting on the other side, and another ride on this so shortened my journey that I found myself in good time for the mid-day train from Ogaki, which I had not any idea of catching when I left Gifu. Here I met Mr. De Ath, of the Kobe Relief .Committee, who was returning to Kobe after a stay of some days in this neighbourhood, and with him I returned home. EARTHQUAKE IN KOBE, H^IRECTLY the extent of the appalling disasters became known the Hyogo News opened an Earthquake Fund for the relief of the sufferers. On the same day both the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the New Oriental Bank Corporation, Ltd., opened lists and up to date the amount collected is as given below. The members of the German portion of the community acted with great celerity and collected over $2,000" which they immediately dispatched for distribution in Ogaki and neighbourhood. On November 7th a largely attended public meeting was held in the Municipal Hall, Kobe, Mr. J. J. Enslie, presid- ing, and the following were appointed a Committee to deal with the funds collected: Messrs. J. J. Ensile, Smythursfc, R. Home Cook, Bremner, Walsh, St. John Browne, H. L. Baggallay, A. C. Sim and De Ath. Of these Mr. Baggallay ws appointed secretary, and Mr. Sim, assisted partly by Mr. De Ath, undertook the distribution. He described his efforts in a series of interesting letters to the Hyogo News which will be found appended. Messrs. H. Lucas & Co., also opened a list for the sufferers at the Dembo Mill, but after collecting $100 closed it in favour of the greater suffer- ing, although they afterwards received the handsome dona- tions of 100 sterling, from Messrs. Dobson and B.vrlow, and 50 sterling from Messrs. James Morrison & Co. of London. The missionaries of Kobe collected close on $500, and the Nagoya Relief Association a much larger sum. In Yoko- hama, the response was most generous and the Herald, Mail ami G.izstts collected between them large sums. Mr. Keil was sent on a similar errand of relief to that of Mr. Sim, and right nobly did he fulfil his task. We regret that limitations of time and space prevent us giving so. a- of his highly interesting communications whic'.i appeared in the Mail. Fro:ii Shanghai came a .magnificent contribution of $15,000, and later a further donation of $250 was sent 4:4 THe, in Japan. to the Kobe Relief Fund, as the result of an amateur dramatic performance. At Hongkong $3,000 were raised, and from England a considerable sum was also sent. The Government on their part, acted promptly and most liberally and altogether it is estimated that their total expenditure for immediate relief, and future repairs will amount to some 20,000,000 yen. Below we give the names of the Kobe subscribers, omitting the Germans, whose modesty would not permit of their individual subscriptions being published: THB HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION. Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation 100.00 F. W. Hellyer 100.00 Walsh, Hall & Co 150.00 Kobe Paper Mill Co 250.00 Comes & Co 100.00 F. S. Goodison 25.00 F. H. Gill 25.00 Jardine, Matheson & Co 300.00 Lucas & Co. .'. 50.00 R. Home Cook 25.00 C. B. Stedman 10.00 Bertrand Shadwell 30.00 H.S.B 100.00 Findlay Richardson 100.00 Butterfield & Swire 100.00 Samuel Samuel & Co 100.00 J. D. Carroll 100.00 John Creagh 50.00 The American Trading Co 100.00 W. M. Strachan & Co 100.00 H. L. Baggallay 50.00 A. M. Delf $10.00 Smith, Baker & Co 100.00 C. Z. Ede 5.00 P. S. Cabeldu 20.00 E. S. Hitchcock 10.00 E. H. Hunter & Co 100.00 Alf. Woolley 25.00 E. W. Noel 10.00 L. D.Abraham 10.00 P. A. Di thief aen 10.00 Colgate Baker and Employees 100.00 E. J. Smithers 2">.00 F. L. Goldman 10.00 R. Hughes 10.00 Geo. F. Smithers 5.00 J. C. Williams 5.00 Dodwell, Carlill. & Co 25.00 H.M.S. "Mercury" 69.82 H. J. Carrew 20.00 F. G. Sale 25.00 D. Mackimmon 10.00 Major Perrin 10.00 J. Clifford Smith 20.00 Langfeldt & Co., Ltd 5.00 H. Julien 5.00 W. Tallers 10.00 Grisar Dernen & Co 25.00 E. Goffinet 10.00 J. Fox 10.00 Operatic Performance 365.00 C. J. Farre Brandt 100.00 S. Rosenfeldt 10.00 C. H. Wilson 15.00 F. H. Hunter 10.00 J. D. Woodford .. 10.00 THe, n Oppenheiiner Freres $100.00 W. Western 15.00 F. Remedios 5.00 K. Hamilton Sharp 5.00 Offertory. S. Michael's Church 18.00 Collected, Eng. M. School 15.00 A. A. Vantine & Co 100.00 F. P. C 10 .oo Frazar k Co 20.00 Maid of Kansaki 1.00 Dr. R. S. Miller 20.00 M. Levy & Co 25.00 -J- $3,508.82 NEW ORIENTAL BANK CORPORATION. G. Bayfield $20.00 C. F. H 20.00 c - G 10.00 T. B 5. 00 The New Oriental Bank Corporation 50.00 A. S. Bremner 25.00 A. De Ath & Co 100.00 George Grimhle 5.00 F. H. Shepherd 5.00 M. de Berigny 5.00 W. Fearon 5.00 Hotel des Colonies 20.00 A. C. Sim 15.00 Skipworth. Hammond & Co 10.00 S. Dutronquoy 10.00 Frank Bischop 10.00 T. W. P. 5.00 W. G. P 10.00 .J. Steedman 20.00 G. Taylor $10.00 E. T. Jackson 5.00 Carroll & Co 20.00 W. Warhurton 25.00 John Hall 10.00 W. Potts 10.00 G. f. Penney 5.00 G. Yanny 10.00 J. .1. Davies 10.00 L. Beguei 5.00 J. Blechynden 5.00 F. J. Hall 5.00 H. E. Eeynell & Co ... 25.00 J. Stewart 10.00 A. M 25.30 G. S. K 10.00 J. Mackey 100.00 M. Wignall 7.00 M. V 10.00 E. M. Phelps 10.00 C. B. Cummings 10.00 J. A. Reynold 5.00 A. & R 25.00 W. Boulton 5.00 M. Elmann. 5.00 Chingtu 5.00 $722.00 "HYOGO NEWS" EARTHQUAKE FUND. China and Japan Trading Co., Ltd $250.00 N. E. Harris 5.00 Rev. J. W. McCollum 5.00 W. E. D 10.00 E. C. Fullert ... 10.00 TTie, n Jamea Green $12.00 Capt. J. W. Barry 10.00 R. Clark 5.00 Takarazuka Mineral Water Co 12.00 N 10.00 L'Abhe Chatron (Roman Catholic Mission) 25.00 R. Marriage "10.00 Hyogo News Office 10.00 Kobe Institute 3.00 H. Trotzig o.OO A. S. Orlebar 10.00 Friend and Sympathiser 50.00 A. M. Nicholas 50.00 Moutrie Robinson & Co 10.00 Albert Wagner 10.00 R. A. Wilson 10.00 J. Caldecott .. 100.00 Total $625.00 Tfie Kobe Relief Fan'l totalled $5,124.51. REPORT OF RELIEF FUND COMMITTEE. The total subscriptions received by the Committee amount to $5,011.72, of which the following have been disbursed: In Cash Distributions (as per list attached) $3,111.00 Purchase of 1 .200 blankets 1,02000 ,, Purchase of Carpenters' Tools 3(58.07 .. Carriage of Blankets, Clothing, &c. to Ogaki ... 10.54 Interpreters, -linrikishas, Coolies, &c . ... 119.23 A remittance to Rev. A. Chappell, Gifu, of funds collected by Rev. H. J. Foss Leaving a balance of $349.88 still to be distributed. This sum the Committee have decided to distribute as under: To Okayama Orphanage $100.00 ., Ogaki Hospital.. 50.00 Takegahana 30.00 Rev. A. Chappell, Gifu (Balance) 169.88 The Committee take this opportunity of thanking all those who have subscribed so generously to this fund and also those who have assisted them by contributions of Clothing, Tea, &c. His Excellency the Cliiji of Hyogo Ken has expressed to the Committee the appreciation of the Governors of the respective prefectures for the very great assistance afforded in relieving distress. (Signed) J. J. ENSUE, Chairman, H. L. BAGGAI.LAY, Hon. Seo. January, 1892. The Distribution List. Sundries. Klankets. Cash. ( Carp. Tools ) O/aki and Villages {and 1 Bag Uoo $414.00 ( Sugar j Imao 1 Box Tea 100 306.00 Sunomata Do. 100 230.00 3 33.00 Kasamatsu . j Tools ) Do. 200 440.00 Hiwata 3000 Midori 9300 Takao 52.00 n Hirano $3:1.00 Kinibara 40.00 Amano-niura 57.00 Takatomi 212.00 Gonorthima 56. 00 'Hospital 25.00 Sujro '20.00 Yeoguchi 14.00 liignshi-mura 5(5.00 Kitashima 37.00 Kayata 3200 Hayada 33.00 Ikenokaiui-mura 24.00 Danoshima . 53.00 Kidaiiiura 47.00 KHagaki 190.00 Kauiazu 43.00 Hondoru 60.00 Gifu (per K,,v. A. | p T 20Q Chappell) I Total :. 1,200 .53.111.00 Mr. Sim w.is appointed to represent the Committee of the Earthquake Fund in the devastated districts and sent us the following account of iiis work : Ogaki, Nov. 8th, 181)1. I promi.-ed to let you know iio\v we are getting on and below you will find a few notes of what I liave done and seen to-day. You liave already had sufficient accounts of the fearful disaster that lias occurred in this district, and all I can say about it is ruins in every direction, the few house* not entirely broken down are in a dangerous state and not fit to live in. The train did not go further than Kyoto last night, and it was ID a.m. this morning when I arrived. I went to the Hospital immediately, met Dr. Berry of Kyoto, who has been here with a staff of assistants and three of his trained nurses for seven days. There have been between 1,000 and 1,200 patients attended to, most of them have been treated and sent back to their houses, but the worst cases still remain and a great number of new ones are still coming in. Most of the cases have been dislocations, fractures, scalp wounds and internal injuries, and some of them of a severe type. A school has been converted into a hospital and the desks with some tatami make very good bed?, there are also several mat-sheds full of patients. Dr. Berry intended to go home to Kyoto to-day, but received a teh'grani to proceed to Nngoya to treat a foreign gentleman who had been rather severely injured on the head, and he left by kuruma about 2.5U; he will be here again to-morrow. IJ has done splen- did work here. Dr. Inoko, of the lied (_'ro*s Society, Kyoto, with staff of assistants, takes charge of the Hospital from to-day. Dr. Sato (A the Imperial University, Tokyo, is also here with a The, JZcLr>tfLQiLa,7te in, J'CLPCLTL. lot of assistants. The medical association of Kyoto have Bent a liberal supply of surgical appliances and also four Burgeons to co-operate with the Red Cross Society. Two of them have been on duty in the villages for the last two days where they were much needed. The Government has also been most liberal in their supply of surgical appliances. Having spent two hours in the Hospital with Dr. Berry, seeing the number of poor creatures who had been and were being treated, I was introduced to the Guncho or Chief Magistrate of the district. Dr. 13. Kinaly interpreted between us. I told him on what conditions I was here to distribute relief subscribed for by the British and American residents of Kobe and elsewhere, and he has done everything he could to forward my views on the subject, which I hope will be satisfactory to the subscribers. The large centres have and are receiving great assistance from outside sources, but the more remote districts are not so well looked after. When I proposed to give special attention to them, both Dr. Berry and the Guncho thought the idea a good one, and a list of the most needy in fifty-seven villages will be supplied to me to-morrow. Without such information it would be almost impossible to get to work. There is a Government fund, whicli in such cases supplies rice to those who require it for ten days, but in this case a further supply for the very poor for twenty days longer has been settled upon. After that they have to look to themselves. $2.50 will be given for the repairs of each house, and there are so many that a large sum will be required. The weather to-day has been delightfully warm, but this will nob last long, and there are so many whose houses, and all belongings were burnt, that a supply of blankets, 'clothing, &c., are much required. Carpenters' tools are now scarce and dear and without them they cannot go on with their work. I now propose that a quantity- of blankets be purchased, and a lot supplied to the hospital, so that every poor patient be supplied with one to keep him or her comfortable, while they remain in such an exposed place, and to take with them when they leave for I was going to say house, but in most cases the home' is a lot of broken sticks and where fire has been, a few red tiles only. A depot must be formed, in some centre, for supplies of blankets, clothes, implements or money, as the cases may require. I will visit the villages and from the Kencho will receive the names of the most deserving. A ticket will be given them for certain articles or cash. Tnis will be supplied accordingly. But after I receive the report of the Guncho to-morrow and with another day's experience 1 will be better able to judge what is best to be done. I walked and drove through YANASE-MURA, BETWEEN GIFU AND OGAKI. Ja~rt7iq[U.cLke. in J~a.pa.~n. the town this afternoon and also visited many of the small villages. It is a pitiable sight. Tiie first scare lias been got over and they are beginning to clear up the remains, lots of small shanties are erected where crowds are sleeping, as they are still afraid to trust themselves in any of the houses that remain in an upright position. The shakes I understand Avere not so bad last night. Dr. Berry tiffined with me to-day and when he was here we had a lively turn about. Now, when I am writing, the table swings about now and again, just to show us the disturbance has not altogether ceased. I have chartered a small summer-house in a garden. It is of the thinnest description and if it did fall on me it would not do much harm. Ogaki, Nov. 9tli, 1891. Having to wait for information from the Kencho this morning, 1 made up my mind to visit Gifu, ten miles from here, and all the villages on the road as well as many in more out of the way places. The destruction is frightful, wh;le villages without a house standing, roads and river bank torn and rent in a most extraordinary manner. The fissures are from a few inches to four feet wide and it is astonishing how unconcerned every one goes about among them. Personally, from reading about them, I had a great horror of them, but to-day I have been jumping over them quite thoughtlessly. I understood that Gifu was in as bad a state as Ogaki ; on arriving there the first, part of the town appeared badly injured, a big temple has suffered much, many out-buiidings are down ami all the main buildings are much distorted. The main portion of the town was in fair order, a few houses only destroyed, and in many streets business is going on as usual, although almost every house has been slightly shaken. I have seen Gifu, Ogaki, Takatomi, Mieji, Godo, Kasa- matsn, Takegahana, and Takasu. Tiie last five are entirely destroyed and the best part of Gifu is burnt. I called at the Kenclio at Gifu to see the Governor. He was out of town inspecting, but I got a lot of valuable infor- mation from another officer and returned to Ogaki. On the Governor learning I had been there, and had misse-l him, and not knowing whether I had gone to Nagoya or to Ogaki, he immediately dispatched an officer to both {/laces on the chance of picking me up. One arrived here and made many apologies from the Governor for not being in when I called. Both the Governor of Gifu, and the Guncho of this place highly appreciate the kindness of the foreigners of Kobe and other places in trying to assist the distressed in their districts. I have to visit the Governor of Gifu again to-morrow. The officials of this district are sorely tired just now as there is 5'0 The, in such a lot of extra work. The information promised yester- day was only partly finished this evening, but was to be completed late tc-night, and perhaps I will be able to inform our Committee in Kobe what to purchase, and forward here to-morrow or next day. The weather is so fine that there is no particular hurry in distributing what we intend giving. Everyone worth listening to councils a little delay before doing anything. The officials are constantly at work finding out the condition of the people, but many who left in fright are slowly retui ning to the sites of their homes, and although I should like to distribute the funds for disposal quickly, am perfectly satisfied it is better to wait for a few days until arrangements are better organized. I took with me to-day a good sum of money with the intention of giving some of it away, but the crowd requiring it was so vast, that I was scared to make a beginning. Ten to twelve miles of ruined houses, and thousands of homeless people is a big job to tackle without a system, and, with the exception of a few small coins to children and old women, I brought the cash back. Blankets and clothing are specially required and if any one has a pair of old breeks, or coats or vests, which have done duty for a reasonable time, send them in to Mr. II. L. Baggallay who will forward them here. Tea, tobacco, in fact anything that would be useful to a destitute human being will be highly appreciated. This is a dreadful . calamity, unfortunately many aged and well-to-do men have lost all their property, and are worse off than an ordinary coolie able to work and who was never owner of more than a worn-out suit of clothes. The Japanese are a wonderful people. They take even disasters, such as the present, in a most philosophical manner. From their outward appearance one would think they are all out on a big pic-nic, but when interviewed their troubles were as keen as could be found amonar our own O people in the old country, under similar circumstances. The rice is all ready for cutting, but I do not see a man. in the fields for miles. They are all labouring among the ruins of their houses, trying to rig up some kind of shanty to sleep in and to protect them from cold or rain. Ogaki, Nov. 10th, 1891. I visited Gifu to-day by request of the Governor and have got all the information required. Prince Komatsu arrived there last night on a tour of inspection of the earthquake district. He is here to-night and is evidently taking great trouble to see everything. On my return here in the evening I received from the Guncho a long list of the destitute people in the villages who require relief, and in company with a Kencha official, a policeman, and my interpreter I start early The J?a.r>t7iqu.ct7te in J'a.pctTL. to-morrow to distribute the funds I have in hand. I have heard many ideas about how this should be done. Many of them are impracticable, so I go and see and use my own judgment what to do. I am sending a list of articles, most required, to our Committee who will purchase them and forward, or bring them up. I have taken the advice of the Guncho here; he is a very good and sensible man and he says blankets, futons, carpenters' tools, &c., would be the most useful and acceptable. Most of this town and Gifu has been burnt d.own, and those articles destroyed. There are very few to be bought here, and those are only to be had at a high price. Many of the carpenters are entirely cleaned out, and have no money to buy such articles, and as every house for miles around must be rebuilt you can imagine how useful these articles will be. I had a walk off the usual path to-day, and gave away some small sums. Found what had been a house; it was all in pieces. Husband, wife and child were sitting on the ruins having a consultation as to what they were to do for the night assets: a few broken sticks, and fifteen cents in cash, no rice or any eatables. Gave them enough to tide over a few days. On re-passing them later in the day, raining heavily, found them all huddled under a couple of doors, set up tent fashion with a piece of mat over it. In some of the hospitals to-night the rain is coming in freely through the roof, and streams of water are running over the floor where the patients are lying. Saw many remove to a drier place. Such is the condition of thousands in this neighbourhood to-night, for I don't think there is a sound house in this part of the country. There is one comfort it is quite warm yet, but in a few da}^s cold will set in when the misery will be severe. Since my arrival the earthquakes have not been very alarming, but this evening there have been some lively tremors. Ogaki, Nov. llth, 1891. This has been my first day's real work in distributing the fund so liberally subscribed by Kobe friends. It has been very difficult for me to start, but after seeing the town last night in the heavy rain we* had, the uncomfort- able state of many of the patients in the hospitals, and the crowds huddled together in the shanties, I determined to begin at once. I had received a long list of the most needy cases from the Kencho, and started this morning at 8.30. My first visit was to the hospital where many of the worst cases still remain. I saw every patient. A gentleman was told off to accompany me, and one of the surgeons kindly explained and showed me every JZ art? L quake. trL Japan. case. The Kencho has also told off a very smart policeman to accompany me during my stay here. I write down the name, age, and occupation, number of family in house, nature of case ?/ severe, or slight, and the amount of money given. The interpreter and the policeman also keep an account in Japanese. The amounts given ranged from two to seven yen. After finishing the hospital we went on the outskirts of the town hunting up those who had been injured. We found lots of them with hospital bandages on many of them had been maimed for life. The regular beggars we don't attend to but there is another class which receives atten- tion when we find them, that is those who had been com- paratively well off but are now cleaned out. The first case of the kind we saw was a doctor, a very decent looking man with a large family and a very old grand- mother. He lost everything he possessed and was living in a miserable shanty outside the town. Another very bad case of this kind soon turned up. It was a most pitiable sight. An old woman 77 years of age, two very old men, and a few young people. The family had been very well off, but had lost all they possessed and felt their position very keenly. The above are specimens of what we see all round the country. To-morrow I visit a large town six miles from here, which is out of the regular track. It is very badly injured and has many wounded. Now that we have got into it the work is not difficult, and we get through it rapidly. Ogaki, Nov. 12th, 1891. I mentioned in my letter to you yesterday that I was going to a town about six miles away it should have been ten miles. It is named Imao, has 850 houses, and was built in an irregular manner with very narrow streets. With the exception of one house, and the shaky remains of a few godowns, the town is entirely squashed, with a large proportion of killed and wounded. This town is the most complete wreck of any seen yet, but there is worse still at a town a long way from here which I hope to see bye and bye where the killed and wounded even exceed this place. The Guncho and the inspector of police accompanied me to Imao this morning, and placed the Kocho of the town and a corps of policemen at my service. We went to the Hospital a mat shed with all the severe cases still there, each one was seen, their story heard and relieved accordingly. After all the ren/ were and severe cases were seen, the slightly wounded were mustered and they were many. Against their names in note-book I now see The. jKcL^t/^q^^CL^te, in, children killed; wife killed; husband killed; one killed; three killed; one wounded. This goes on page after page. One poor little fellow aged six with a bandaged head appears for the family father and mother killed, three children left. Another, a pretty little girl aged 11, the only representative of the family left. These are a few specimens of what we found at Iraao. Eighteen people met for morning prayer in a temple. They were all killed, their 4'.) injured The town is situated partly on a high river bank, and partly on lower land. It is about one half mile long, and there was a fairly strong west wind blowing, and a short time after the heavy shock of earthquake the fire broke out. Everyone was busy trying to extricate their friends from the ruins when the conflagration started, and had not time to think of trying to stop it. In a conversa- tion with a yonng carpenter, who was himself a fireman, we learned that the fire started in several places, and in a few minutes the whole of the wrecked houses were in a blaze. It began at the windward side and tore long with terrific force from one end of the town to the other. Many were imprisoned among the ' debris of their houses and could not be extricated. Everyone who could, had to flee for their own lives, and had to leave their friends in the midst of the flames. Many ran to the fields, some took to boats, others to the high river bank, which must have been like a shaking bog, during all this time the earth- quakes still continuing. What a fearful scene it must have been ! The above list will show there is no exag- geration in this report. We visited the Kencho, saw the officials and made arrangements to have the wounded, or their representa- tives and others mustered on Monday, when we will return to give them what relief we can. In the Hospital, as usual, we found the surgeons hard at work, and lots of poor people snowing injuries of every description. Amongst them there is, as might be expected, a lot of children. One poor little chap in this lot had been terribly mauled about, head, face and arms all badly hurt. Although he was sitting up in bed, we could not get a smile out of him, a twenty cent piece being received calmly. The Japanese are very fond of their children and a little attention to them with a present of five or ten sen gives more pleasure to the crowd than more- substantial sums given to older people. Another scramble among the earthquake holes for several miles, brought us to Takegahana. The statement below will show this to be almost a duplicate of Kasamatsu^ The towns are situated very similarly. There were: 1.180 houses 1,172 destroyed 51S by fire 8 remain injured 4.9.">0 population -33 killed 54 b:dly injured 229 injured. We made arrangements to visit them on Monday. It was getting late and we made our way to Ogaki. The roads 58 The. JZclr'7^qu.cL7ce in J'CLPCLTL. were still badly cut up but as we neared home they improved greatly, and the kururna could get along at a good pace. Ogaki, Nov. 16, 1891. On Sunday morning Mr. Baggallay and Mr. De Ath, members of the committee, with two other friends, arrived here bringing with them another substantial sum of money, and other things. We made a holiday of it as those gentlemen wanted to see part of the town and country, as with the exception of Mr. De Ath, who remains here a few days, all the others had to return by a late train. This morning our attention was taken up with the arrangement of supplies, sending lots here and there to the many towns in the neighbourhood. The supply of carpenters' tools has arrived and arrange- ments were made to distribute them at 5.80 in the evening, and at that time we visited the Kuclio and found a regiment of carpenters waiting. They had all #ot a ticket from the officials for the articles they required. We left the distribu- tion to the officials, merely looking on ourselves. The names were read out and each received something, some a few and others a full set of tools according to their wants. They went away quite pleased and all those men nearly 100, can start, in to-morrow at their own work. Some have lie< j n trying to earn a living as jinrikisha men for want of the articles given to them to-day. In the early morning train we noticed~many carpenters coming from other parts of the country. We visited the Hospital on Sunday and found that a great number of the patients had been sent away, only the most severe cases re- maining. Early to-morrow morning we visit the three towns mentioned in my last notes, and may not return here for some days. * Ogaki, Nov. 17th, 1891. This is the longest day's work we have had, and have seen the most distressing scenes witnessed, so far. We started early and arrived here at 9.30, as hungry as wolves and tired out. Will let you know all about it next letter. Have heard from headquarters to-night, and you may not receive any further letter from me for two days. Ogaki, Nov. 20th, 1891. On Monday last we divided up bales of blankets, &c., and sent them to the different places we intended to visit, with letters to the officials informing them when we were to arrive. On Tuesday we started for Takegahana, one of the towns mentioned in a former letter as being almost entirely burnt, with many killed and wounded, distance seven The, ^7^ JTctpcLTL. and a half miles. During our journey there we passed thousands of houses, nearly all destroyed the people trying to make some portions of them habitahle. On driving along many pitiable cases were met. The first was a little girl aged ten years. She looked very unhappy. We stopped, and on enquiries it was found that her house was destroyed, her father, a small farmer, killed, mother injured for life, three brothers killed, and there remained of the family two children younger than herself. She, of course, received a sum from the public fund which was also supplemented from private means. Another was an old woman aged 73; she had been injured, some of her friends killed, and there remained five members of the family. Another old 'woman was mefc, she had been to the hospital to have her wounds dressed, and was on her Avay home ; her age wa.s 68, there were nine in the -family, and all very poor, houses and all property burnt. Another one with the same history ca-ue out at the same time. Remember these were not beggars, but people who had been fairly well to do. and lost everything. They thought we were merely asking these questions out of curiosity, but when they received two or there yen each, they were considerably astonished, and all were very grateful. On arrival at Takegahana, the officials had received the letters and blankets the night before, and we found a notice had gone round for the severely injured or their representa- tives, to the slightly injured, and to the. relatives of the killed. This was one of the worst places, and there were several hundreds present. They were all arranged in groups. It was rather difficult at first, but with some straw ropes they were soon in order, with of course a large crowd looking on. The severely wounded were first seen, their names taken, and the number of family left. Next the slightly wounded, and then those who had members of their families killed. To prevent jealousy each class received the same amount, but a glance down the line discovered some whose claims were heard afterwards, and who were rewarded accordingly. These cases generally consisted of women who had lost their husbands and were left with a young family, their houses and all effects burnt, a?id in most of those cases the lightheartedness of the Japanese was absent. It was 12.30 p.m. before we finished the distribution of cash and blankets, and we adjourned to the residence of the Chief Magistrate for tiffin. The offices for officials, and their residences are in almost every instance mat-sheds. That will give some idea of how these districts have suffered. After tiffin we had to go another five miles to Kasamatsu, riding being almost impossible the roads being so badly in- jured. We had to walk, and jump from one lump of mud to another, but we got there somehow. On arrival at the 3?CLT>tftqu,a.7te, in. headquarters a private house, now rented for the officials, we found all the plaster split, but it had been a new and well built house, and is in fair order, being the only habitable one out of 1,'242 houses, a few others still banging together, and the rest burnt we felt a little disappointed that there was no mob visible, but on interviewing ibe chief man we soon learnt Avh^re they were. The interpreter, who has turned out a first rate fellow for an expedition of this kind, was taken to where the " clans were gathered" w'aile we visited the hospitals and tiie wounded in. the outskirts of what had been a town. It was raiher late before all were in order, and when we arrived at the old temple ground, whore they were as- sembled, I stood aghast at t ; ie numbers there, but the sight of those bales of blankets, and the comfortable feel of my bag of satsu somewhat relieved me. We started in with .the severely injured, w!io took a long time to dispose of, and thrn all the other different grades were seen and enquiries made quickly, three officials and the chief of police being present. It was getting dark before we finished, and after all those who bad received tickets had been attended to there were as usual a few wiio being absent when the messenger arrived had not had an opportunity of coining earlier. A hurried investiga- tion by the officials generally ended in their being sent away happy. The Guncho, who had been absent tknt afterenoon, then put in an appearance, and he and the chief of Police, both first-rate specimens of Japanese, were profuse in their thanks for what Ave had done. It was now dark, but the moon would soon be up, and we had another town to visit about five miles "from there. The road was as bad, if not worse, than the last one. It was a case of walking slowly and lifting the kuruina over the earthquake cracks. On arrival at the town of Sunomata, which had been visited before, we found it was far too late for us to see to any distributions. But as a bale of blankets, and a large box of tea bad been sent out it was neccessary to give instructions how the goods should be dispersed, as \ve should not have time to go again. The Kocho and doctor were to see to it and I have just received a receipt, and a list of those who had been the recipients. Another long walk and ride brought us to Ogaki, our head-quarters, at 10.30 a.m. KITAGATA-MUUA, OWARI. A ' >FflE v DE^JI v The following are the official returns . of deaths, and damage to house property : Aichi Gifu Fukui Shijra Q , _, . Prefecture. Prefecture. Prefecture. Prefecture. Killed 2,929 6,939.... 8 6.., 78 9,960 Wounded 2,931 16,925 55 33 50 19,994 Buildings Destroyed . . . .41,499 86,327 611 312 1 128,750 Partially Destroyed . . . .13,341 38,385. . . . .' 461 153 2. . .' 52,342 This list does not include the number of slightly damaged buildings, nor of godovvns, but only dwellings. The returns of Gifu are those supplied to us through the courtesy of the Kencho authorities. SHOWING [AREA OF EARTHQUAKE DISTURBANCE. 1 Tokyo, 2 Yokohama, 3 Shizuoka, 4 Haummatsu, 5 Na^oya. 6 Gifu, 7 Fukui, 8 Otsu, 9 Kyoto, 10 Osaka. 11 Kobe. Black spots .show where severe shocks were felt. Half shaded, less severe. Towns not shaded, very slight. AIREA OF DISTURBANCE, Jt CCOKDING to the report of the central Meterogical Observatory the area of the places which suffered the most severe shocks was 720 square ri, including Mino, Owari, and Echizen; of those which felt less severe shocks 2,910 square ri, including Etchu, Kaga, Shinano, Mikawa, Totomi, Iga, Ise, Omi, Wakasa, Tango, Settsu, and Yamato; of those which experienced mild shocks, 3,910 square ri, including Kozuke r Musashi, Sagami, Kai, Tajirna, Inaba, Hoki, Bichiu, Mimasaka, Bizen, Harima, Awaji, Awa, Sanuki, and Kii; and of those in which slight vibrations were noticed 8,730 square ri, including Iwaki, Iwashiro, Hidachi^ Shimotsuke, Echigo, Izurao, Iwami, Nagato, Bingo, Aki, Suwo, lyo, Tosa, and the provinces of Kyushu. c IXCE the great earthquake many thousand shocks have been experienced. One of these, early in December, caused great damage- around the districts of Fujiyama, and another later in the month was more severely elt in Yokohama than the shock of October 28th. On January 2nd a shock was felt at JSTagoya which threw the turret of the castle out of the perpendicular, fissures opened up in several streets and mud and sand was erupted, while four, ; houses were thrown down. A field, near the Oisegawa, Ovvari, subsided to a depth ranging from six to twalve inches, over an area 909 feet long, and varying in breadth from three to eighteen feet. Rumours were prevalent that Fujiyama had subsided, but a gentleman made a somewhat daring ascent and found the plaee indicated was merely the precipice of Hoeizan, thrown into relief by the snow. Late in December it was discovered that the charcoal burners living in the valley of Kitayama-suji, near the Neodani, were in a truly pitiable condition. The great earthquake threw down mountain tops, and so destroyed the roads as to make il in impassable, and in consequence communication with the outside- world was cut off, and the people had been living in the most abject misery. The Rev. Mr. Chappell afforded them some relief, and the Government on learning the facts immediately sent assistance, but several deaths had occurred from starvation. The ruined towns have now been nearly rebuilt, embankments re-erected, and roads repaired so that few traces of the devastation remain. The engineers of the Government Railway have performed wonderful feats of scientific skill, in the way in which they have relaid the line, and repaired the bridges, so that damages which it was expected would take twelve months to repair, will be made good by next month, and by the middle of March the service will go on as before. We beg to acknowledge receipt of $40 per G. E. C. from "Friends in England" towards the Earthquake Relief Fund. EARTH SCIENCES LIBRARY 230 Earth Sciences Bldq 642-2997 ~nr sj TA - * ' 7 ' ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS Books needed for class reserve are subject to immediate recall DUE AS STAMPED BELOW FORM NO. 008, 7m ,