corded shocks as 1,874. Page 45 gives account 

 of odors and vapors that impregnated the air, 

 caused by the earthquake. Pages 47 to 52 take 

 up the Assuring caused by the earthquake; 

 and the fact that people are said to have felled 

 large trees to sit on wlien the earth waves 

 rolled under them and would burst, is serious 

 enough to make a person want to save a few 

 tall cypress or gum trees on their land, if for 

 no other reason. Pages 54 and 55 give interest- 

 ing data as to certain peculiar incidents caused 

 by the Assuring, one of which is amusing to 

 read, but no doubt serious enough to e.xpe- 

 rience. It is related by LeSieur: It seems that 

 a Mr. Culberson lived on a V-shaped point in 

 a bend of Pemiscot River, embracing about an 

 acre of ground, on which his well and smoke- 

 house were situated, l>ing between the house 

 and the river. On the morning of the earth- 

 (luake Mrs. Culberson started to go to the 

 smokehouse for meat, only to And the path 

 crossed by the wide stream, the smolcehouse 

 and well "being seen across the river, on the 

 opposite side from where they were the night 

 before. Page 62 speaks of where writers of the 

 great quake call attention to the turning back 

 of the Mississiupi River and of the closing of 

 an entrance to Little River from the Mississippi 

 River some three miles below New Madrid. 

 Pages 64 to 75 deal with the "Sunken Lands" 

 of this earthquake country and it is sure in- 

 teresting reading to anyone, and especially so 

 to anyone who has lived near four years in 

 this country and had an opportunity to study it 

 at close hand. Now page 77 gives a picture of 

 sand blows taken in California, which sand 

 blows were formed in the recent San Francisco 

 earthquake, and they surely look like those in 

 this country, of which there seems to be no 

 end. Pages 79 to 83 give interesting descrip- 

 tions of these sand blows and how in some 

 localities they are so thick that the edges of 

 one touch the other and give the country a 

 very sandy appearance. Pages 83 to 85 speak 

 on sand sloughs, pronounced "sloos." "Sinks" 

 are very fully described on pages 87 and 88, and 

 as you plow through some of these "sink holes" 

 in dry times you wonder how they looked and 

 how it was around here when they were formed. 

 Pages 89 to 94 give different accounts of the 

 action of the earthquake on the waters of the 

 Mississippi River and furnish very interesting 

 reading to one living not right in this "Earth- 

 quake Zone." Pages 95 to 99 take up the effect 

 the earthquake had on the forests, and from 

 the descriptions and the damage done you 

 wonder that there is as much timber in this 

 country as there is. Pages 99 and 100 treat of 

 the effect of the "quake" on artiAcial structures. 

 and from the long continuance of this par- 

 ticular earthquake period it is no wonder that 

 there was few frame buildings left standing. 

 Page 101 treats of tne noises accompanying the 

 earthquake, and that there is I can testify to 

 the truth of it. for the quake of Oct. 23rd, 1909, 

 was accompanied by a noise like an explosion 

 to the west of our home. Pages 102 to 104 take 

 up Popular Beliefs of the Origin and Cause and 

 Evidence of Origin of this Earthquake, and are 

 very interesting. The "Ultimate Cause" of this 

 earthquake as written up on page 105 is well 

 worth reading to anyone, either living in this 

 affected country or contemplating living there. 

 Page 109 gives Contemporaneous Disturbances 

 and it seems that there was a-plenty doing in 

 the earthquake line at that time. Page 110 is 

 very interesting reading in that it speaks of 

 the probabilities of a recurrence of this earth- 

 quake and when, judging it by other earth- 

 quakes, records of which have been kept over 

 periods of several hundred years, and they show 

 that they axe to be expected about every 100 

 years. This page also gives names of localities 

 that would be the most affected were it to 

 occur again. 



This constitutes the whole of the book that 

 is devoted to the general description of this 

 great earthquake and is very Ane reading and 

 very instructive to anyone, and especially to 

 parties thinking of locating in this locality for 

 a home or investment. 



It seems that while I was hunting for news 



relating to this greatest of earthquakes, that 

 everything most that pertained to it came 

 under my observation, and being the century 

 anniversary of it, and the only paper that had 

 published an account of it 100 years ago, the 

 St. Louis Republic, gave quite a write-up of 

 the catastrophe, and I here copy their account 

 of it: 



"CENTENNIAL OF MISSOURI'S EARTH- 

 QUAKE." 

 (St. Louis Repul)lic of Sunday, Nov. 12th, 1911.) 

 "One hundred years ago this month the trap- 

 pers, squatters, traders and settlers down the 

 valley from St. Louis were listening now and 

 again to certain strange and portentious noises 

 that seemed to come from beneath the earth. 

 There were some timorous souls among them 

 who claimed to have felt the earth tremble 

 beneath their feet. .lust as always, the doubt- 

 ers laughed and mocked and continued to 

 doubt. 



"It was late in December that the mightiest 

 earthquake that ever rocked North America 

 struck the New Madrid country. There were 

 more lives lost in San Francisco, that time the 

 earth there shook loose from its moorings, but 

 the PaciAc quake did not utterly change the 

 face of the country like this valley tremor that 

 lasted for days and weeks. 



"It was then that the Mississippi River ran 

 uphill for hours. The great mass of water 

 hurrying toward the Gulf paused and turned 

 back" upon itself. All the valley was a-quiver. 

 Great geysers opened in the good black earth 

 of the valley. Some of these sink-holes fumed 

 and murmured for years afterwards. It was in 

 December, 1811, that the valley found itself 

 being shaken as a terrier shakes a rat. The 

 premonitory rumblings and grumblings among 

 the rocks" no longer frightened the valley 

 dwellers. They had grown used to them. 



"St. Louis went to bed on Sunday night, De- 

 cember 15, without any apprehension. The 

 tremors and grumblings had not been bothering 

 the valley this far north. Very early in the 

 morning of the 16th the earth began to wabble 

 like a drunken man. St. Louis promptly for- 

 r.ook his bed and ran out into the streets. All 

 the rest of the night and till noon of Monday 

 the rocking, roaring and trembling was kept up 

 at short intervals. 



"Missouri was all a-quiver. Thousands of 

 acres of land to the west of the river sank and 

 the waters of the Mississippi invaded the newly 

 made low grounds. Missouri taxpayers are still 

 paving for the damage caused during the last 

 days "of December. 1811, and the early months 

 of" 1812. Big Government dredges are now 

 rooting their way through these swamps, drain- 

 ing and opening them up to the belated plow. 

 Had it not been for this tremendous earthquake 

 the swamp lands of Missouri would have been 

 small in area. 



"That earthquake has cost Missouri millions 

 in deferred population, lost production and the 

 actual cost of draining the quake-sunken lands. 

 The Arst newspaper account of the tremor, 

 afterwards known as the New Madrid earth- 

 quake, was published in The Missouri Gazette, 

 now The St. Louis Republic. This was pub- 

 lished on Saturday. December 21, 1811. and the 

 extent of the disaster was by no means known 

 at the time. In fact, tue greater part of the 

 sinking took place some time later. 



" 'On Monday morning last.' says the editor, 

 'about a quarter past 2, St. Louis was visited 

 by one of the most violent shocks of earth- 

 quake that has been recorded since the discov- 

 erv of our country. As we were all wrapt in 

 sleep, each tells his story in his. own way. I 

 will also relate my simple tale. 



" .T.t the period above mentioned I was roused 

 from sleep by the clamor of windows, doors and 

 furniture in tremendous motion, with a distant, 

 rumbling noise resembling a number of car- 

 riages passing over the pavement. In a few 

 seconds the motion and subterraneous thunder 

 increased more and more. Believing the noise 

 to proceed from the north or northwest, and 

 expecting the earth to be relieved by a vol- 



