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damp walls. A very excellent instance of the character of the Japanese bricks may be seen at Hakodate, where a series of large godowns recently erected by the Kaitakushi are in ruins, owing to the splintering and reduction to powder of the brickwork in their walls, caused by one winter’s frost. A partial remedy for the badness of the bricks may be to coat the walls with lime or cement plaster, but even with this I fear that sufficient moisture will find its way to them as to have a very deteriorating effect upon them. Another and a very grave reason against the ordinary use of brickwork at at present carried out in this part of Japan is the almost useless character of the lime mortar. Bricks in a building are held together by the lime mortar between them and if this mortar does not possess the necessary connecting qualities each brick is dependent on itself and the edifice which is constructed of them is deprived of almost its entire stability. Good mortar requires clean sharp sand and newly burned lime. Such sand in the neighbourhood of Yokohama is difficult to procure and is almost never used and the Japanese seem to haves pride in using only the oldest lime which from long keeping has entirely lost its virtues.
The system of construction best suited to withstand earthquakes is a consideration which should always hold a prominent place in the design of any erection in Japan. I have not been able, though I have made considerable efforts to do so, to procure any information either to verify the particulars I gave in my former paper regarding earthquakes or to make additions to that. While we are perfectly aware, therefore, of the liability of the country to shocks of destructive violence we are not aware of the nature of the shocks or the localities in which they may be expected to be most severe. It is to be hoped, however, that with the assistance which the Japanese Government now possesses both as regards instruments and professional men, that before long we may have a regular system of observations affording us this information. I have formed the opinion that the heavy
