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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



swamp here given, the water growth in the foreground and the dead 

 trunks of the old trees are in contrast to the dense growth of new 

 timber winch is gradually reclaiming the swamp (Fig. 4). 



Reelfoot Lake, the most noted single feature resulting from the 

 earthquake, is a shallow body of water between the Mississippi river 

 and the Chickasaw Bluffs in western Tennessee. It has a length of 

 about twenty-five miles, a width of about five miles, and a depth of 

 twenty-five feet or more. Previous to the earthquake, it is said, no 

 lake existed, the lauds being of the ordinary type of fertile bottoms 



4. View in Sunk Lands formed by New Madrid Earthquake in Southeastern 



Missouri.. (Photo by Fuller.) 



characteristic of the Mississippi, and had early been granted by the 

 Spanish to certain favored individuals. Through the land ran Reel- 

 foot Creek, a little stream rising in the highlands on the east. 



After the earthquake all was changed. A warping of the surface 

 occurred across the course of the little Reelfoot Creek, the channel in 

 the lower portion being lifted above its old level so water no longer 

 flowed through it. while the upper part sank and was soon covered by 

 the waters that collected behind the barrier. The old channel can still 

 be traced by soundings across the lake and the landmarks bounding the 

 early grants made out beneath the waters, while to the south the 

 nearly dry bed of the unlifted creek may be traced to the Mississippi 

 (Fig. 5). 



