information from the interior, to the west and northwest of Natchez; 
us of certain information. 
the lo 
350 
_ ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL SHOCKS OF AN EARTHQUAKE IN , 
THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERN PARTS OF THE 
UNITED STATES. 
By his Ex’y. WINTHROP SARGENT, Esa. 
Governor of the Missisifppii Territory. 
* Communicated in a letter to a member of the Academy, . ee 
porate hare e 
Gloster Place, 2 miles south of Natchez, April 2, 1842. 
I HAVE, my dear Sir, delayed communication upon the subject 
ef the earthquakes, which this country has been experiencing, (and 
upon some parts of the river almost incessantly) in the hope of correct 
but as yet I do not learn that the effects have been felt beyond St 
Louis upon the north, and Natchitoches or Nagadoches to the west 
and Iam inclined to believe if there were any more advanced toward 
the Spanish Dominions, they must have been very feeble, though the 
great waste between settlements in that direction will forever deprive 
I shall not pretend to hazard a conjecture as to the sources of those — 
mighty concussions, nor am I perfectly satisfied of the existence of 
volcanoes in the west and northwest, notwithstanding the report of la- 
va, scoria, and pumice, in those quarters. An intelligent traveller at 
the mouth of the Missouri, upon some of the first shocks and explo- 
sions being noticed, set his compass, and was of opinion, that they 
had proceeded in a direct line from New Madrid. From this place 0 
wer Chickasaw Bluffs upon the river (a distance of about eighty 
