The principal law that governs the distribution of after-shocks in time may be regarded as well-established. It is otherwise with regard to their distribution in space. This has been examined only in the cases of the Japanese earthquake of 1891 and the Inverness earthquake of 1901. So far as we can judge from the evidence which they furnish, after-shocks appear to be most numerous within and near the central portion of the seismic focus; though the area of maximum activity is subject to continual oscillation. In this region, also, there is evidence of a gradual decrease in the depths of the after-shock foci; while, near the extremities of the epicentral area, there occur districts of slightly greater frequency than elsewhere. With the lapse of time, there seems therefore to be a constant extension, both upwards and longitudinally, of the area over which the principal fault-slip took place. ORIGIN OF EARTHQUAKES. In the introductory chapter, a brief sketch is given of the different causes to which earthquakes are assigned. With those due to rock-falls in subterranean channels, we need have little to do. The shocks are invariably slight, and the part they play in the shaping of the earth's crust is insignificant. Volcanic earthquakes possess a higher degree of interest. They represent, no doubt, incipient or unsuccessful attempts to produce an eruption. They may be the forerunners of a great catastrophe. Of far higher importance in the history of our globe is the third class of earthquakes, including all those connected with the manifold changes which the crust has undergone. In the slow annealing process, to which it has been subjected from the earliest times, the crust has been crumpled and fractured, elevated into the loftiest mountain ranges or depressed below the level of the sea. Every sudden yielding under stress is the cause of an earthquake. It is chiefly, perhaps almost entirely, in the formation of faults that this yielding is manifested. The initial fracturing may be the cause of one or many shocks, but infinitely the larger number must be referred to the slow growth of the fault, the intermittent slips, now in one part, now in another, which, after the lapse of ages, culminate in a great displacement. Of the length of time occupied in the formation of a single fault, we can make no estimate in years. The anticlinal fault of Charnwood Forest dates from a pre-carboniferous period. In 1893 it had not ceased to grow.[94]