K.;, 



236 



AUDUBON 



Shock succeeded shock almost every day or night for 

 several weeks, diminishing, however, so gradually as to 

 dwindle away into mere vibrations of the earth. Strange 

 to say, I for one became so accustomed to the feeling as 

 rather to enjoy the fears manifested by others. I never 

 can forget the effects of one of the slighter shocks which 

 took place when I was at a friend's house, where I had 

 gone to enjoy the merriment that, in our Western country, 

 attends a wedding. The ceremony being performed, sup- 

 per over, and the fiddles tuned, dancing became the order 

 of the moment. This was merrily followed up to a late 

 hour, when the party retired to rest. We were in what 

 is called, with great propriety, a log-house^ one of large 

 dimensions, and solidly constructed. The owner was a 

 physician, and in one corner were not only his lancets, 

 tourniquets, amputating knives, and other sanguinary ap- 

 paratus, but all the drugs which he employed for the relief 

 of his patients, arranged in jars and phials of different 

 sizes. These had soipe days before had a narrow escape 

 from destruction, but had been fortunately preserved by 

 closing the doors of the cases in which they were contained. 



As I have said, we had all retired to rest, some to dream 

 of sighs or smiles, some to sink into oblivion. Morning 

 was fast approaching, when the rumbling noise that pre- 

 cedes the earthquake, began so loudly as to waken and 

 alarm the whole party, and drive them out of bed in the 

 greatest consternation. The scene which ensued it is im- 

 possible for me to describe, and it would require the 

 humorous pencil of Cruikshank to do justice to it. Fear 

 knows no restraint. Every person, young and old, filled 

 with alarm at the creaking of the log-house, and appre- 

 hending instant destruction, rushed wildly out to the grass 

 enclosure fronting the building. The full moon was slowly 

 descending from her throne, covered at times by clouds 

 that rolled heavily along, as if to conceal from her view 

 the scenes of terror which prevailed on the earth below. 



