John Milne

“ On Sunday you stream to your churches, with the spires of which many of your towns are fairly bristling, and often listen to the wisdom of a young man. You look up to him, admire him, and discuss him. Even if his views are palpably wrong, you tolerate him and give him support. While travelling in the Colonies I talked on religious subjects with several persons, all of whom were wealthy—one was a member of Parliament—who inveighed against all forms of religion but their own, in a manner which reminded me of the fanaticism of the Middle Ages. ”

“ What is required from those who undertake to forewarn us of an earthquake is an indication not only of the time at which the disturbance will happen, but also an indication of the area in which it is to occur. Those who dwell in an area where there are certain well-defined periods during which seismic activity is at a maximum—if ten or fourteen days should have passed without a shock—might, in many instances, find that a prophecy that there would be an earthquake within the next few days would prove itself correct. ”

“ This is all the thanks a Chinaman gets for making a pleasant little green oasis and feeding the whites on cabbages and peas. To be a gardener is looked upon as a Chinaman’s profession. In fact pottering about with a watering pot, and hawking vegetables, is the greatest height to which a Chinaman’s soul is supposed to rise.
Ah Foo, when he came to Thursday Island, started a garden. How things were to be induced to grow, nobody could conceive. That was the Chinaman’s business. If there is a second Aden in the world, it must be remembered that it is well represented by Thursday Island. ”

“ At the time of an earthquake the manner in which we are moved backward and forward is very similar to the manner in which the weight is moved. If we stand on a hard rock-like granite, we are to a great extent placed as if we were attached to a stiff quickly-vibrating spring. If, however, we are on a soft rock, it is more like being on a loose flaccid spring.
All that has thus far been considered has been a backward and forward kind of motion, where there is a rectilinear compression and extension amongst the particles on which we stand. ”

“ Beyond this arcadian scene came islands, islets, more volcanoes, and then the ocean.
With Italian scenery and warm sunshine I felt as comfortable as a tom-cat sunning itself on a red-tile roof.
On the most distant island, away out in the blue ocean, Sir George Grey lives. Sir George is a great man in New Zealand, a lover of the Maori, and generally original in his conceptions. Anyone would be original if they lived the Robinson-Crusoe-like life that Sir George endures. They say that he does not get many callers.
Everything in Auckland was very nice, excepting my hotel. ”

“ After looking through his glasses at the cargo, the sheep-captain said:
‘Here are some directors. Get out the thin rope, boys. Thin rope, mind. Yes, that will do. Put it round their stomachs. Now hoist away—head and tail.’
Then all the sheep laughed and grinned, whilst the directors, who were coming up swinging against the side of the ship, shrieked for mercy. Then they were dumped down on the deck like a heap of big ripe grapes, unhooked, and kicked into pens. One or two of them died. ”

“ Just as at the Geysers we hear the thud and feel the trembling produced by the sudden evolution and condensation of steam, so may steam by its sudden evolution and condensation in the ground beneath us give rise to a series of shocks of varying intensity, accompanied by intermediate vibratory motions—that is to say, a motion which, as judged of by our feelings, is not unlike many earthquakes. Often it may happen that the result of the explosion may be the production of a fault, or at least a fissure ”

“ How a stranger who visits Sydney is to avoid seeing the harbour is a great puzzle. Whichever way you walk you must come to the harbour—its ramifications extend in all directions. Although it has only one entrance, and is seldom more than a mile in breadth, often being much less, it is said to measure round its shore line more than seventeen hundred miles. Sydney people and Australians, when abroad, are for ever doing all they can to create a prejudice against this beautiful corner of creation. ”

“ Coming, as shocks often will, from a region of volcanoes, the study of these disturbances may enable us to understand something about the nature and working of a volcano. As an earthquake wave travels along from strata to strata, if we study its reflections and changing velocity in transit, we may often be led to the discovery of certain rocky structures buried deep beneath our view, about which, without the help of such waves, it would be hopeless ever to attain any knowledge. ”

“ The volcanic energy pent up behind the silver taps of that establishment have produced too deep an impression ever to be forgotten. To have a bath which will wash your friends, stretch your muscles, give flexibility and tone to your larynx, extinguish volcanoes, put out fires, kill your enemies, create a nervous excitement sufficient to turn black hairs grey, alarm intruders, amuse the children, flood the streets, is a luxury denied to all but Victorians. ”

“ When we approach the question of the extent to which the attraction of the sun and moon may influence the production of earthquakes, a question which we have to answer is, whether it is likely that the attractive power of the moon is so great that it could draw up the crust the earth beyond its elastic limits. ”

“ Once it had perhaps been a fiery ocean of lava, which, by the processes of time, had been smoothed over to an even surface. Crossing the plains, you saw long lines of wire fencing getting lower and lower until they vanished as a black line in the direction of the horizon. What opportunities to study space of two dimensions! What cricket grounds! All the teams in the world might play upon these plains and not one would know of the existence of his neighbours. I suppose the flatness of Australia has had much to do with their success at cricket. Every boy could play. ”

“ If for a given earthquake the origin of which is known we have determined by seismographs the mean acceleration of an earth particle at two or more stations at different distances from that origin, we are enabled to construct a curve of intensity the area between which and its asymptotes was shown to be a measure of the total intensity of the shock. Comparing this area with that of a unit disturbance produced, say, by the explosion of a pound of dynamite, one may approximately calculate in terms of this unit the initial intensity of the earthquake. ”

“ I wished to increase the traveller’s pleasure by pointing out to him the sights best worth visiting. I was desirous of placing in the hands of those who had visited this Wonderland the means of reviving their impressions. I wanted to give to those who live in distant countries, and are not blessed with the ways and means of journeying to New Zealand, an accurate and faithful account of all its marvels. In short, I wanted to benefit mankind. I did not want to sell thousands of editions of my work. I did not want to induce people to go by steamers or stay at hotels in which I had an interest. ”

“ If we know the nature of the motion produced by an earthquake, we are aided in tracking it to its origin, and in reasoning as to how it was produced. If our knowledge of the nature of the motion of an earthquake is incorrect, it will be impossible for us intelligently to construct buildings to withstand the effects of these disturbances. We have thus to consider, in this portion of seismology, a point of great scientific importance, and shall deal with it at some length. ”

“ According to the formula, t = 2π √d/e, we should expect that a particle would make each semi-vibration in an equal time, and from a knowledge of the density and elastic moduli of a body this time might be calculated. Although the time of a semi-oscillation may be constant, we must bear in mind that, like the bob of a pendulum during each of its swings, the particle starts from rest, increases in velocity until it reaches the middle portion of its half swing, from which it gradually decreases in speed until it reaches zero, when it again commences a similar motion in the opposite direction. ”

“ We simply looked from the bottom of the valley, up the watery slope at the fleecy heights looking down into our boat, with horror. Then there was a rise, a crash, a deluge of water, and we sank, wet through, down into the next valley. I never crossed so many ranges of mountains in two hours before. All the time we were holding on like a parcel of cats weathering a gale on a church spire. ‘It’s all right,’ said the man at the helm; ‘we’ll beat the Fanny yet.’ The Fanny was another small brig. ‘Just haul that jib-sheet in a bit, Jim, and I’ll keep her to it. ”

“ The pride of the place is, however, the Museum, which is reckoned by its energetic curator, Dr. Von Haast, to rank amongst the best in the world. It is certainly the best museum within a radius of many thousands of miles. It contains something of everything, from the autograph of Nelson to a sewing-machine. There is a fine gallery of paintings and statuary. Antiquities, from mummies to mediæval armour, galleries of geological specimens, rooms full of birds and stuffed animals, other chambers filled with bones, a Maori house chock-a-block with Maori treasures, and finally a room full of moas. ”

“ So long as the medium in which this transfer of energy is continuous, each particle has a limit to its extent of motion, dependent on the nature of the medium. When, however, the medium, which we will suppose to be the earth, is not continuous, but suddenly terminates with a cliff or scarp, the particles adjacent to this cliff or scarp, having no resistance offered to their forward motion, are shot forward, and, consequently, the ground here is subjected to more extensive vibrations than at those places where it was continuous. ”

“ In the investigation of the principle on which earthquake instruments make their records, in the analysis of the results they give, in problems connected with astronomy, with physics, and with construction, seismology offers to the mathematician new fields for investigation.
A study of the effects which earthquakes produce on the lower animals will not fail to interest the student of natural history.
A study like seismology, which leads us to a more complete knowledge of earth-heat and its workings, is to be regarded as one of the corner-stones of geology. ”

“ While at the hotel, Peter and I were introduced to an aboriginal. He was black in colour, tall in stature, and had a curly hair. They called him Charlie. I was told that he had been caught wild at a place in the bush about one hundred miles back. When he was first caught the landlord said he was a perfect terror. If you only looked at him, he would snap his jaws, and grind his teeth together like a couple of millstones, and when his passion reached a climax, he would swivel his eyes round and round in circles, snort like a bull, and jump up and down vertically. ”

“ In some countries earthquakes are felt daily, and from what will be said in the chapter on earth pulsations it is not unlikely that every large earthquake might with proper instrumental appliances be recorded at any point on the land surfaces of our globe. The area over which any given earthquake extends is indeterminate. The area over which an earthquake is sensible is sometimes very great. The Lisbon shock of 1755 is estimated as having been sensible over an area of 3,300 miles long and 2,700 miles wide, but in the form of tremors and pulsations it may have shaken the whole globe. ”

“ What revelations of beauty! N.B. If so disposed, the visitors may take a bath in the cerulean depths of Te Terata. (Before doing so, we privately advise him to make his will, for he will be boiled ‘as sure as eggs is eggs.’)
5. Oh! pinky white terraces where you lay in marble bows, ‘which are described as sensuous heavens.’ Oh! polished walls of alabaster and powdered silica, like the finest silver sand. In a glade, Nature has supplied a dressing-room sheltered from the luminosity of the heavenly orb. ”

“ An earthquake is ‘the transit of a wave or waves of elastic compression in any direction from vertically upwards to horizontally, in any azimuth, through the crust and surface of the earth, from any centre of impulse or from more than one, and which may be attended with sound and tidal waves, dependent upon the impulse and upon circumstances of position as to sea and land.’
In brief, so far as motion in the earth is concerned. Mallet defined an earthquake as being a motion due to the transit of waves of elastic compression. ”

“ Had I remained in Charters Towers another week I must either have allowed myself to be insured, or else have died from worry. The doctor has probably succumbed. I never saw a man better cut out to be led round and do as he was bidden. If Old Insurance had said to his companion—‘Now dance, doctor—jump, doctor—say yes, doctor—stand on your head, doctor,’ I believe the poor little man would have done his best to comply with the orders. My pity for the doctor was very great.
It seems to be a common thing in Australia for insurance agents with their doctors to be travelling in search of subjects. ”

“ By violent shocks buildings may be completely overthrown. In the case of small earthquakes, the upper portion of a house may frequently move through a much greater distance than the ground at its foundation. For instance, during the Yokohama earthquake of February, 1880, when the maximum amplitude of the earth’s motion was probably under 3⁄4 of an inch, from the slow swing of long Japanese pictures, from three to six feet in length, which oscillated backwards and forwards on the wall, it is very probable that the extent through which the upper portion of houses moved was very considerable. ”

“ In all countries which are leading factors in the world’s advancement, we find the over-civilized, the civilized, the semi-civilized. The gentleman to whom I spoke on the Newcastle wharf might out of courtesy be admitted to the last class. I suppose he belonged to that particular division of the human species known in Australia as the larrikin, in ’Frisco as the corner boy, and in London as the loafer. Sydney and Melbourne are the headquarters of the larrikin. They may, if it is an honour, claim the invention of this excrescence in Australian civilization. ”

“ A rise in temperature is usually accompanied by a fall in the barometer, and this in turn may be a condition favourable for the occurrence of an earthquake.
If we regard solar heat as an agent causing expansions or contractions in the earth’s crust, then fluctuations in temperature become an immediate cause of earthquakes. The probability, however, is that solar heat has little or no connection with the final cause producing earthquakes, although at the same time coincidences between the occurrence of earthquakes and unusual fluctuations in temperature may from time to time be observed. ”

“ The very fact of only knowing a little about a place adds a charm to an attempt at its description. If you know everything about it you are inclined to write a series of facts, while if you only know a little, there is room for the exercise of the imagination, and the production becomes a combination of truths and untruths.
Reading a book of facts is like reading a dictionary. To make facts palatable they must be diluted as you [Pg 2] dilute whisky. Never having been blessed with a capacity for gleaning facts, I have gradually come to dislike them. ”

“ One of the most practical problems which can be suggested to the seismologist is the determination of the district or districts in any given country from which earthquake disturbances originate. With a map of a country before us, shaded with tints of different intensity to indicate the relative frequency of seismic disturbance in various districts, we at once see the localities where we might dwell with the least disturbance, and those we should seek if we wish to make observational seismology a study. ”

“ The scenery of the bush and valley is remarkably fine. The bush is much thicker than in Australia. In places it appeared like a solid wall of green. On all sides as you climb up you see huge tree-ferns, many of which are twenty to thirty feet in height. Above these are tall gum trees, whilst beneath them are beds of common bracken.
All was white with frost, and the fronds of the ferns in many places sheltered small pools and ponds of water which were covered with a thick cake of ice. Tree-ferns helped in carboniferous times to make the coal. ”

“ Assuming that the earth has the rigidity assigned to it by mathematical and physical investigators, we nevertheless have travelling round our earth, following the attractions of the moon and sun, a tidal stress. This stress, imposed upon an area in a critical state, may cause it to give way, and thus be the origin of an earthquake. Earthquakes ought therefore to be more numerous when these stresses are the greatest. ”

“ Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday Islands exist near Thursday Island, and the only island about which I should have been doubtful, would have been a Sunday island. I don’t think the people who live near the land’s end of the Australian continent could harmonize with an island named after the seventh day. I wonder if Peter looked at the atlas before he made the bet?
Thursday Island is one out of a set of hilly islands forming outliers off the end of Cape York. From a balloon they ought to look like the commencement of a series of stepping stones, reaching from Australia towards New Guinea. ”

“ New South Wales alone admires the policy of its alma mater, and adopts free trade. Not only are they at variance in their commercial regulations, but there exists between them the same feelings of jealousy that may be found between different nationalities, and each ‘colonial’ looks upon his own particular colony as superior to its neighbour. One question which you are often asked is, ‘Do you like Sydney or Melbourne best?’ Several Victorians spoke of their Melbourne and its people as being go ahead and smart—quite American you know. ”

“ There are plenty of needles, statues and arrangements to commemorate great people about Sydney. Those who wish to have a chance of earthly immortality, let them try to live and die in Sydney,—only don’t let the candidates for effigies, and other eulogies in stone, be too numerous. ”

“ The place seemed to be a mixture of piety, poll parrots, teetotalism, and bad grub.
In the afternoon I met a doctor who was acquainted with Sydney. He said he would show us some fun. Better go out to Botany Bay, and see Sir Joseph Banks’s Garden. The suggestion was hailed with joy, and after lunch, Peter, Dodd, and I were all safely seated on the roof of a tramcar on our way to Botany Bay. Going to Botany Bay! What room for reflection—at least that is what those in Britain think. Botany Bay is looked upon as a home appointed by our Government for murderers and vagabonds. They think wrongly. ”