1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



265 



ping. The face of the bluff literally 

 crumbled under its action ; wide rents 

 opened and great masses slipped and 

 slid downward, carrying with them 

 the immense trees which covered the 

 surface, and mingling both earth and 

 timber in confused jumbles at the bot- 

 tom. Two of the present views (Figs. 

 3 and 4) show trees overthrown by the 

 slides at this time. In one the orig- 

 inal trees survived, gradually straight- 



ered an area of 255 miles long and 5 

 miles wide. Originally a small stream, 

 know as Reelfoot Creek, flowed 

 through the region, but at the time of 

 the earthquake the land was upheaved 

 across the lower portion and the 

 waters dammed back to form the great 

 lake, now so well known from the 

 large quantities of fish taken from it 

 each year. The region at the time of 

 the shock was well wooded, much of 



Fig. 4 Tree overturned and partly killed by New 

 Madrid Earthquake, Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee 



ening to an upright position ; in the 

 other the old broken trunk is decayed 

 and gone, the present tree being devel- 

 oped from one of the original limbs. 



Of all the causes of destruction 

 which have been enumerated, that 

 caused by the submergence of the land 

 was most widespread. The most im- 

 portant single instance was the for- 

 mation of Reelfoot Lake, which cov- 



it being covered with species charac- 

 teristic of dry situations. Over a large 

 part of the area the timber remained 

 upright after the shock, but was grad- 

 ually killed by the rising waters. In 

 Figure 5 is shown a view of such tim- 

 ber standing in about 15 feet of water. 

 Elsewhere, however, the timber was 

 prostrated, forming a network of 

 trunks, which even now can be seen 



