Another effect of this personal equation of the observers is that the sound-vibrations apparently outrace those of longer period. The Italians, for instance, generally hear the sound that precedes the shock, and more rarely the weaker sound that follows it. In Japan, only the earlier sound-vibrations, if any, seem to be audible. In Great Britain, on the contrary, the fore-sound is perceptible to four, and the after-sound to three, out of every five observers; and these proportions are maintained roughly to considerable distances from the epicentre. It follows, therefore, that the sound-vibrations and those which constitute the shock must travel with nearly, if not quite, the same velocity; and that the greater duration of the sound is due either to the prolongation of the initial movement or to the overlapping of the principal focus by the sound-focus. Neither alternative can be regarded as improbable, but observations made on British earthquakes point to the latter explanation as the true one. It will be sufficient to refer to two phenomena in support of this statement. In the first place, the percentage of observers who hear the fore-sound varies with the direction from the epicentre. Thus, during the Inverness earthquake of 1901, the majority of observers in Aberdeenshire regarded the sound as beginning and ending with the shock; while, in counties lying more nearly along the course of the great fault, the sound was generally heard both before and after the shock (p. 253). In this case, then, the initial and concluding sound vibrations must have come chiefly from the margins of the seismic focus; and those from the margin nearest to an observer would be more sensible than those from the farther margin. Again, in slight earthquakes, such as the Cornwall earthquake of April 1, 1898,[83] the curves of equal sound intensity, while their axes are parallel to those of the isoseismal lines, are displaced laterally with respect to these curves, owing to the arrival of the strongest sound-vibrations from the upper margin of an inclined seismic focus. When a fault-slip occurs, the displacement is obviously greatest in the central region, and dies out gradually towards the margins of the focus. The phenomena described above show that the evanescent displacement within these margins generate sound-vibrations only; and that the greater slip within the central region produces also the more important vibrations that compose the shock. As the former are perceptible over a limited district, while the latter may be felt through half a continent, it is clear that the sound-area should bear no fixed relation in point of size to the disturbed area, but should be comparatively greater for a slight shock than for a strong one. VELOCITY OF THE EARTH-WAVES.