bY ae _ Of the Earthquakes of 1811-12. 
A litile anterior to this period, what were called the dry years 
had commenced, and there were, comparatively, very scanty 
falls of rain until the last spring; since when there has been a 
very large quantity. To elucidate the subject more fully, it 
may not be amiss to give some topographical account of the 
town of Columbia. About a mile from the eastern bank of the 
Congaree, the town begins to be thickly built up, and at this 
distance the elevation of ground is supposed to be probably one 
hundred feet above the level of the river in its ordinary state. 
The hill is then tolerably level, for the space of a mile or more, 
in its western extent, and its soil is principally composed of a 
loose, porous sand, with which few, if any, stones are inter- 
mixed at any depth that has yet been penetrated. In attempt- 
ing to account for the failure of the well-waters, it was sUup- 
posed by some, that the earthquakes had produced such chan- 
ges in the loose texture of the soils, that the veins of water 
which used to supply the wells, had sunk beneath the level of 
these reservoirs; but on this head it is to be observed, that 
there was no remarkable failure of water for one or two yeals 
after these changes were supposed to have been effected. Oth- 
ers again, connecting the greatest failure of water with the con- 
curring dearth of rain, conceived that the fact might be ex- 
plained by the drought’s occasioning a deficiency in the river* 
water, and thus cutting off the supply which they supposed had 
heretofore percolated from the margin of the river into the 
wells, If their hypothesis was correct, it was believed that 
the difficulty would be removed, either by deepening the wells, 
or by subsequent large supplies of rain. Many wells were im- 
mediately deepened from two to eight or ten feet, but the re 
medy proved very inadequate. And since the great falls of 
rain, within a year past, although there aré somewhat larger 
supplies of water in some wells, yet there is not half as 
much as existed before the earthquakes. The College well, 
although deepened several feet, does not now contain generally 
more than four or five feet of water. I must not omit © 
remark, that two wells, situated in a longitudinal line from 
north to south, with regard to each other, and also in a lower 
spot of ground, never failed entirely, although they diminished 
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