_The last House in a Row._—When an earthquake shock enters a line of buildings, and proceeds in a direction coincident with that of the buildings, we should expect that the last of these houses, being unsupported on one side, would be in the position of the last person in Tyndall’s row of boys. From this it would seem that the end house in a row would show the greatest tendency to fly away from its neighbours. If the last house stood upon the edge of a deep canal or a cliff, there would be a layer of ground, equal in thickness to the depth of the canal or to the height of the cliff, as the case may be, which would also be in a position to be thrown forward. The effect which is sometimes produced upon an end building is shown in fig. 23, which is taken from the photograph of a house shattered in 1868 at San Francisco.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.—Church of St. Augustin, Manilla. Earthquakes of July 18–20, 1880.]
_The Swing of Buildings._—The distance through which buildings are moved at the time of an earthquake depends partly on their construction and partly on the extent, nature, and duration of the movement communicated to them at their foundations. 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 ¾ 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 some instances these pictures seem to have swung as much as two feet, and from the manner in which they swung they evidently synchronised with the natural swing of the house.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.—Webber House, San Francisco. Oct. 21, 1868.]
From this it would seem that such a house must have rocked from side to side one foot out of its normal perpendicular position. That the motion was great is testified by nearly all who tried to stand at the time of the shock, it having been impossible to walk steadily across the floor of a room in an upper story. The houses here referred to are either those which are purely Japanese, or else those which are framed of wood and built on European models, a class of building which is very common in Tokio and Yokohama.