22 RESOURCES OF TENNESSEE. 



ber and nearly all of other kinds have rotted off at the water 

 surface, and fallen. 



Tradition has it that the area between Reelfoot Lake and 

 the river was elevated during the earthquake. The investiga- 

 tions of Mr. M. L. Fuller* and others establish the existence of 

 a dome extending from "the vicinity of New Madrid south- 

 ward to the vicinity of Caruthersviile, a distance of 15 miles, 

 and from a point west of the Mississippi to Reelfoot Laka, a 

 distance of 5 to 8 miles." Mr. Fuller states that some of the 

 doming was almost certainly due to the earthquake of 1811, 

 but says that if Little Prairie, on which New Madrid is sit- 

 uated is a part of the dome, the uplift will have to be referred 

 to an earlier date, as New Madrid village previous to the shock 

 was on high land, never covered by the floods. 



It is the present writer's belief that if any doming took place 

 in 1811, it was very slight indeed, for the level alluvial plain on 

 which Tiptonville stands is now probably not more than 6 to 8 

 feet above the level of the lake. It must have had approxi- 

 mately this elevation before the earthquake, for it is said to 

 have been timbered with oak, ash, sycamore, sweet gum, and 

 other trees that thrive in land that is fairly well drained. The 

 timber of the lake area was chiefly cypress, which proves a 

 low, swampy condition before the earthquake. 



As further evidence of a comparatively high elevation of the 

 land west of the lake before 1811, it is stated by the present 

 residents that some of the land about the present site of Tipton- 

 ville was then cleared and in cultivation. 



The probable existence of this dome before the earthquake 

 makes it much more inviting as a possible source of oil and 

 gas than if it had been formed during that time, for the reason 

 that the deep-seated agencies that caused it affected all the 

 deposits of the area, down to the old rock floor. These deposits 

 are described later in the paper. The effects of the earthquake 

 were largely if not wholly superficial. Also, the accumulation 

 of oil and gas is such a slow process that the time since 1811 

 is too short for any considerable store of either to have been 

 formed. 



'U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. 494, p. 63. 



