Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/733

Rh motions during the past ten years show that the earth tremors of Japan have no direct relation to its earthquakes. Records of both have been kept. A well-marked periodic tilt of the land has been detected, corresponding to a rise of the land on the northeast side, and a more rapid subsidence of it again. Similar effects had been recorded in Germany, but of much smaller amplitude. In Germany, barometric changes caused the tilting, but the relation between the two was not so marked in Japan; there may possibly, however, be some connection of them with magnetic influences. The directions of earthquake motions and of earth tremors across Japan were each at right angles to the mountain axis of the country, a fact which suggests that both are caused by crumpling of the mountains round their axis. The observations of earth tremors had gone so far as to demand attention from practical astronomers and others. When a tremor occurred it rendered delicate weighing impossible, inasmuch as the balance swung irregularly and altered its zero. Similarly astronomical observations would be upset. A practical outcome of the committee's reports was the alteration in the design of bridges in Japan. After earthquakes it was found that bridges and other masonry gave way at the base; the form of a wall or pier had been calculated which, on being subjected to a horizontal reciprocating medium, would be equally likely to break at any part.

Mount Tacoma.—An effort is making by the citizens of Tacoma, Washington, to restore to their lofty and graceful mountain—to which the name Rainier has been attached—its aboriginal designation of Tacoma. This term, according to the analysis of it by the Hon. James Wickersham, quoted in F. G. Plummer's Illustrated Guide Book, means "snow-covered mountain." The mountain is in full view from the city of Tacoma, bearing south, 56º east, a distance of forty-four miles. It stands about twelve miles west of the Cascade Range, and its entire drainage flows westward into Puget Sound and the Columbia River. It "has the form of a dome surmounted by three small peaks, with a maximum elevation of fifteen thousand feet. It rises almost from the sea-level; and as its average diameter at the base is about twenty miles, its mass is roughly estimated at two hundred cubic miles. Upon its slopes on every side are enormous glaciers and ice-fields, arranged on radial lines and forming a system that for extent and grandeur is unexcelled on the earth. The limit of perpetual snow is at four thousand feet, but the timber line extends much higher. Natural groves, meadows, and prairies surround the mountain, except where the river cañons and glaciers cut the slopes. Upon the northeast the Urania, Blaine, Inter, and Winthrop glaciers drain into White River and thence to Duwamish Bay. To the northeast the Carbon, Willis, North Mowich, South Mowich, and Pugallup glaciers form the Pugallup River, which flows to Tacoma harbor. To the southwest the Tahoma, Kautz, Van Trump, Nisqually, and Paradise glaciers drain into the Nisqually River, which flows through Succotash Valley to Puget Sound. The Cowlitz River is the drainage from the Cowlitz, Willinakas, and Little Willinakas glaciers, and flows into the Columbia River." The mountain is reached from Tacoma by electric railway, eleven miles to Lake Park, stages to Paradise Park, sixty-seven miles from the city, and thence by a day's hard work climbing nine thousand feet up in seven miles. Mr. Plummer's Guide Book (Tacoma, Wash.) is full of information about the mountain, clearly and precisely given.

Dr. Alfred L. Carroll.—Dr. Alfred Ludlow Carroll, of New York, who died October 30, 1893, was a physician of high standing, a vigorous writer on subjects of medicine, sanitation, and hygiene, and an active laborer for the elevation of the standards of medical science and practice and the diffusion of sound principles of hygiene. A full sketch of his life has been prepared by Dr. J. W. S. Gouley for the New York State Medical Association, from the advance sheets of which, kindly furnished us by him, we gather that he was born in New York city, August 3, 1833, the son of parents of good scholarship and refined tastes. He began the study of his profession when eighteen years of age, with Dr. Valentine Mott, expecting to become a surgeon, but afterward turned his attention to general medicine. He began to contribute to the