264 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



trunk, one part standing on one side of 

 a fissure, the other part on the other. 

 * * * Near the St. Francis River 

 there is a great deal of sunk land 

 caused by the earthquake of 1811. 

 Here are large trees sunk 10 or 20 feet 

 beneath the water. * * In 



Reelfoot Lake [Tennessee] the fisher- 

 man floats his canoe above the branch- 

 ing submerged tops of cypress trees." 

 These submerged trees after strug- 



the cottonwood trees cracking and 

 crashing, tossing their arms to and fro 

 as if sensible of their danger, while 

 they disappeared beneath the flood." 

 Still another says the "roaring and 

 whistling produced by the impetuosity 

 of the air escaping from confinement, 

 seemed to increase the horrid disorder 

 of trees being blown up, cracked and 

 split and falling by thousands at a 

 time." 



Fig. 3 Trees tilted by landslides caused by New 

 Madrid Earthquake. Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee 



gling with the changed conditions for 

 the most part finally died and their 

 bare trunks may still be seen among 

 the younger growth of cypress which 

 is now taking possession of the old 

 swamps. On the Mississippi, accord- 

 ing to another observer, "The sand- 

 bars and points of islands gave way, 

 swallowed up in the tumultuous bosom 

 of the river, carrying down with them 



Still another prominent source of 

 destruction was the landslides occur- 

 ring along the steep Chickasaw Bluffs 

 which border the Mississippi lowlands 

 on the east in Kentucky and Tennes- 

 see. These bluffs, consisting of more 

 or less clayey deposits, were already 

 nearly as steep as the material could 

 stand and needed only the shock of 

 the earthquake to inaugurate the slip- 



