_Types of buildings used in earthquake countries._—In Japan there are excellent opportunities of studying various types of buildings. The Japanese types, of course, form the majority of the buildings. The ordinary Japanese house consists of a light framework of 4 or 5 inch scantling, built together without struts or ties, all the timbers crossing each other at right angles. The spaces are filled in with wattle-work of bamboo, and this is plastered over with mud. This construction stands on the top of a row of boulders or of square stones, driven into the surface soil to a distance varying from a few inches to a foot. The whole arrangement is so light that it is not an uncommon thing to see a large house rolled along from one position to another on wooden rollers. In buildings such as these after a series of small earthquake shocks, we could hardly expect to find more fractures than in a wicker basket. The larger buildings, such as temples and pagodas, are also built of timber. These are built up of such a multitude of pieces and framed together in such an intricate manner that they also are capable of yielding in all directions. The European buildings are, of course, made of brick and stone with mortar joints. Some of these, as the buildings of the Ginza in Tokio, are not designed for great strength. On the other hand, others have thick and massive walls and are equal in strength to those we find in Europe. The third type of buildings are those which are built in blocks; and these blocks being bound together with iron rods traversing the walls in various directions are especially designed to withstand earthquakes. A system somewhat similar to this has been patented in America, and examples of these so-called earthquake-proof buildings are to be found in San Francisco.