THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE 47 



The first shock came at 2 a. m., December 16, 181 1, and was so severe that big 

 houses and chimneys were shaken down, and at half-hour intervals light shocks 

 were felt until 7 a. m., when a rumbling like distant thunder was heard, and in 

 about an instant the earth began to totter and shake so that persons could neither 

 stand nor walk. The earth was observed to roll in waves a few feet high, with 

 visible depressions between. By and by these swells burst, throwing up large 

 volumes of water, sand, and coal. Some was partly coated with what seemed 

 to be sulphur. When the swells burst, fissures were left running in a northern 

 and southern direction, and parallel for miles Some were 5 miles long, 4J feet 

 deep, and 10 feet wide. The rumbling appeared to come from the west and travel 

 east. Similar shocks were heard at intervals until January 7, 181 2, when another 

 shock came as severe as the first. Then all except two families left, leaving 

 behind them all their property, which proved to be a total loss, as adventurers 

 came and carried off their goods in flat boats to Natchez and New Orleans, as 

 well as all their stock which they could not slaughter. On February 17 there 

 occurred another severe shock, having the same effect as the others, and forming 

 fissures and lakes. As the fissures varied in size, the water, coal, and sand were 

 thrown out to different heights of from 5 to 10 feet. Besides long and narrow 

 fissures, there were others of an oval or circular form, making long and deep 

 basins some 100 yards wide, and deep enough to retain water in dry seasons. 

 The damaged and uptorn country embraced an area of 150 miles in circumfer- 

 ence, including the old town of Little Prairie [now called Caruthersville], as the 

 center, a large extent on each side of Whitewater, called Little River, also both 

 sides of the St. Francis in Missouri and Arkansas. Reelfoot Lake, in Tennessee, 

 sank to feet. 



Features 0] the earthquake area. — This disturbed area extends 

 from a point south of Cape Girardeau for 200 miles to a locality 

 north of Wynne, Ark., and reaches from the eastern bluffs of the 

 Mississippi to the foothills of the Ozarks a distance of from 30 to 

 40 miles. It includes most of Lake County, Tenn., a number of 

 counties in southeastern Missouri, and several in northeastern Arkan- 

 sas. Dr. W J McGee, in his paper on "A Fossil Earthquake," 

 states that — 



With a single exception, the traveler by steam packet on the lower Mississippi 

 finds the river flanked by alluvial banks so low that during great freshets they 

 are overflowed all the way from Cairo to the Gulf, save where protected by natural 

 or artificial levees. 



The exceptional area he describes as a low dome, which bulges upward 

 20 or 25 feet above the general level of the alluvial plain. This dome 



1 Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. IV, pp. 411-13. 



