HISTORY. 83 



expressed, at the first sight of this region ; and I have found 

 since that others have had the same opinion. There has 

 been a second change subsequently, in which the streams 

 that drained off the waters of this country have been confined 

 within narrowed beds. Upon all the streams of this coun- 

 try, the banks at present confining their waters are low 

 bottom lands, the alluvion of the streams, generally from six 

 to twelve or fifteen feet in the principal rivers above the 

 common stage of water. Behind these are bluffs forming a 

 wider bed, in w^hich it is probable the stream once flowed. 

 My conjecture is, that at some upheaving of the earth by an 

 earthquake, since the epoch of the denudation, another part 

 of the lakes and waters, that had been left after the first, has 

 been thrown off, and thus the streams, which convey off 

 these waters, have been diminished and their beds narrowed. 

 In 1663 Canada was visited by a very violent earthquake, 

 which probably extended to this, country. It is known to 

 have extended west to the region of Lake Michigan. To 

 Europeans the Missisippi country .was then unknown. My 

 conjecture is, that this earthquake not only was felt at that 

 period on the Missisippi, but that it may have been repeated 

 also, or rather continued, and that, by a gradual upheaving, 

 the consequence of these earthquakes, a change may have 

 been effected in the hydrographic condition of this country 

 since it was seen by Lahontan, and that rivers may have 

 extended then farther than their channels now run, and some 

 of the ground then forming their beds has become dry. 

 Though there is no authority for stating that this earth- 

 quake actually rent the earth of the Missisippi valley, yet, 

 as it is known to have been felt in a neighboring region, and 

 probably was here also, the relation is here given as con- 

 nected in its effects, though not in time, with this portion 

 of our story. The story is, in the main, true, though the 



