94 Of the Earthquakes q/" 1 8 1 1-1 2. 



A little anterior to this period, what were called the dry years 

 had commenced, and there were, comparatively, very scanty 

 falls of rain until the last spring ; since when there has been a 

 very large quantity. To elucidate the subject more fully, it 

 may not be amiss to give some topographical account of the 

 town of Columbia. About a mile from the eastern bank of the 

 Cogaree the town begins to be thickly built up, and at this 

 distance the elevation of ground is supposed to be one hun- 

 dred feet above the level of the river in its ordinary state. 

 The hill is then tolerably level for the space of a mile or more 

 in its western extent, and its soil is principally composed of a 

 loose, porous sand, with which few, if any, stones are inter- 

 mixed at any depth that has yet been penetrated. In attempt- 

 ing to account for the failure of the well-waters, it was sup- 

 posed by some that the earthquakes had produced such changes 

 in the loose texture of the soils, that the veins of water which 

 used to supply the wells, had sunk beneath the level of these 

 reservoirs ; but on this head it is to be observed, that there 

 was no remarkable failure of water for one or two years after 

 these changes were supposed to have been eflfected. Others 

 again, connecting the greatest failure of water with the con- 

 curring dearth of rain, conceived that the fact might be ex- 

 plained by the droughts occasioning a deficiency in the river- 

 water, and thus cutting off the supply which they supposed had 

 heretofore peccolated from the margin of the river into the 

 wells. If their hypothesis was correct, it was believed that 

 the difficulty would be removed, either by deepening the wells, 

 or by subsequent large supplies of rain. Many wells were 

 immediately deepened from two to eight or ten feet, but the 

 remedy proved very inadequate. And since the great falls of 

 rain, within a year past, although there are somewhat larger 

 supplies of water in some wells, yet there is not the half as 

 much as existed before the earthquakes. The College well, 

 although deepened several feet, does not now contain generally 

 more than four or five feet of water. I must not omit to 

 remark, that two wells, situated in a longitudinal line from 

 north to south, with regard to each other, and also in a lower 

 spot of ground, never failed entirely, although they diminished 



