Ill PROCEEDINGS OF OTTAWA MEETING. 



Assuming the verity of the hypothesis, one out of its many consequences may 

 be considered. The Lake county dome lies athwart the course of the Mississippi, 

 which is here well out in the flood-plain; so that, if the lifting was effected sud- 

 denly, the flow of the river must have been obstructed. Now the declivity of the 

 lower Mississippi is so slight and the land so low that the back water due to any 

 obstruction spreads over an enormous area and reaches a vast volume ; moreover, 

 under the hypothesis, the Reelfoot lake depression was formed contemporaneously 

 and the lake must have been filled by the water of the river taken not simply above 

 the obstruction lad (by reason of geographic relations which need not be set forth in 

 detail) from many miles above, ('. e., at what is now the site of Hickman. Accord- 

 ingly it may be considered certain that an immediate effect of the earthquake 

 must have been a reversal of the flow of the Mississippi about what is now the 

 the northern extremity of Lake county, at least for many hours. 



There are voluminous, though somewhat vague and little known, records of a great 

 earthquake centering about the Spanish settlement of New Madrid, in southern 

 Missouri, beginning near the end of L811 and continuing with gradually diminishing 

 intensity through the succeeding year and most of 1813. These historical records 

 embrace a classical memoir by Dr S. L. Mitchill; an account by a kinsman of the 

 eminent professor of geology in Harvard college; a detailed paper in the American 

 Journal of Science, by Louis Bringier, a reputable engineer of New Orleans; de- 

 tailed descriptions in the ephemeral press and in the books of the day ; an elaborate 

 description by the geographer Flint; a careful and extended statement by Sir 

 Charles Lyell ; and an unpublished circumstantial account by a grandfather of the 

 writer, who resided in western Kentucky throughout the entire earthquake period. 

 From these various accounts, especially that of Mitchill, it can be shown, in so far 

 as historical records are trustworthy, that the New Madrid earthquake was one of 

 great severity and was unparalleled in extent ; it was felt from New < Means on the 

 south to Fort Dearborn (Chicago) and Detroit on the north, and from Washington 

 and Charleston on the east as far westward as explorers had then penetrated, thus 

 affecting fully one-third of the area of the United States or not less than a million 

 : quare miles. 



For various reasons the historical records of the New Madrid earthquake have 

 been looked upon with distrust, ami a communication has been laid before one of 

 the leading scientific societies of the country by an eminent savant for the purpose 

 of proving that no such earthquake ever occurred. One of the reasons for the dis- 

 trust of the records was the allegation by Shaler, by Bringier, and by nearly all 

 contemporary witnesses that the flow of the Mississippi river was changed, and 

 that it ran upstream for hours ; another reason for distrust was found in the oft- 

 repeated allegations that during the tremor the earth opened and fountains of water 

 flowed from the fissures, bringing up great quantities of sand and gravel (as well as 

 "coal" and the type specimen of the now well-known Ovibos cavifrons), from un- 

 known depths; hut the latter allegations are in perfect accord with recent observa- 

 tions on earthquakes, notably, those of Charleston and Kach and Cachar, while 

 the reversal of the flow of the Mississippi is unmistakably recorded in the present 

 physical features of the region, for the summit of the Lake county dome is less than 

 a score of miles from the still existing town of New Madrid. 



The lecture was illustrated by lantern views. In moving and second- 

 ing a vote of thanks to the lecturer addresses were made by Sir .lames 



