MILLAR ON THE MISSOURI EARTHQUAKE IN 1895. 65 



and seams could be studied in this opening better than elsewhere. The 

 principal joints were vertical and about four feet apart. The faces were 

 as smooth as if dressed by hand. Their direction was to the northwest, 

 evidently at right angles to the dip of the strata. lietween the principal 

 seams were smaller and irregular joints. The upper layers were here 

 much disintegrated, and gave a good chance to study transition from 

 rock to soil. There is no drift here — nothing but a thin sod — and we are 

 evidently on the highest part of the limestone. The first 10 or 12 inches 

 could be moved with a shovel; a pick-axe could take 10 or 12 inches more. 

 Many pieces are found here yellow on the outside and with the grey un- 

 changed stone in the center. I thought at first that the change was due 

 to carbonic acid (C 0-) but Prof. Carmen applied a test and showed that 

 iron was present. On the west bank of the river three openings have 

 been made, to a depth of about 6 feet. A few brown cubical crystals 

 were found in a limited area. 



The best years for crystals were 1888 and '89. Those were phenomenal 

 years and I was so situated th;it I could make frequent collecting trips, 

 and succeeded in getting an unusually good assortmeni, both in varieties 

 and number of specimens. I nmde an effort to be on good terms with 

 the workmen in the quarries, and they were alwai's ready to save spec- 

 imens and to assist me. The display of crystals in the years mentioned 

 attracted much public attention. On a pleasant morning it was a com- 

 mon thing to see 30 persons looking for specimens. Most of them were 

 attracted by the bright yellow pyrites, and it was an easy matter for me 

 to get from them what I saw" were good specimens. 



NOTES ON THE SEISMIC DISTURBANCES IN MISSOURI, 



OCTOBER, 31, 1895. 



BY JOHN M. MILLAR, ESCANABA. 

 (Read before the Academy, Dec. 26, 1895.) 



Ex-Governor H. C. Brockmeyer, in a report of the earthquake of Octo- 

 ber 31, 1895, states that the site of the disturbance in Missouri is 

 almost identical with that of the years 1811-12; that at Charleston the 

 earth was cracked and volumes of water and sand poured through these 

 fissures. 



Sir Charles Lyell, in his Principles of Geology, devotes several pages 

 to the earthquake at New Madrid, Mo. in 1811-12, and refers to the emi- 

 nent Von Humboldt as follows: 



"It has been remarked by Humboldt in his Cosmos that the earthquake 

 in New Madrid presents one of the few examples on record of the inces- 

 sant shaking of the ground f(u* several successive months, far from any 

 volcano," and then proceeds to say ''that the inhabitants relate that the 

 earth rose in great undulations, and when these reached a certain fear- 

 ful height, the soil burst and vast volumes of water, sand and pit coal 

 were discharged as high as the tops of trees. Flint saw hundreds of 

 these deep chasms running in an alluvial soil several years afterwards." 



In 1841, Lyell visited the disturbed region of the Mississippi which 

 was said to extend along the course of the White River and its tributaries, 

 9 



