Along this hyperbolic boundary-line, or rather within a narrow band of which it is the central line, the shock lost its double character, and was manifested as a single series of vibrations gradually increasing in intensity and then dying away. Close to the edges of this band, careful observers were able to distinguish two maxima of intensity connected by a continuous series of tremors (_c_, Fig. 61). Thus, within the band, the two series of vibrations, which elsewhere were isolated, must have been superposed on one another; while, near the edges of the band, the concluding tremors of the first series overlapped the initial tremors of the second. _Origin of the Double Series of Vibrations._--The Hereford earthquake thus belongs to the same class as the Neapolitan, Andalusian, Charleston, and Riviera earthquakes. As in these cases, the hypothesis of a single focus is inadmissible. The division of the disturbed area into two regions of opposite relative intensity, duration, etc., is sufficient proof that a single series of vibrations was not duplicated by reflection or refraction, or by separation into longitudinal and transverse waves. It is equally conclusive against a repetition of the impulse within the same focus. We must therefore infer that the focus consisted of two nearly or quite detached portions arranged along a north-west and south-east line, and that the impulse at the north-west focus was the stronger of the two. The only question that remains to be decided is whether the impulses at the two foci were simultaneous or not. Now, if the impulses occurred at the same instant, the waves from the two foci would travel with the same velocity, and would therefore coalesce along a straight band which would bisect at right angles the line joining the two epicentres. But we have already seen that this band is curved, and it thus follows that the two impulses were not simultaneous. Again, since the concavity of the hyperbolic band faces the south-east, the waves from the north-west focus must have travelled farther than those from the south-east focus before the two met along the hyperbolic band; in other words, the impulse at the north-west focus must have occurred two or three seconds before the impulse at the other.