Bringier on the Region of the Mississippi, S^c. M 



ing with all its weight upon the water that had filled the low- 

 er cavities, occasioned a displacement of this fluid, which 

 iorced its passage through, blowing up the earth with loud 

 explosions. It rushed out in all quarters, bringing with it 

 an enormous quantity of carbonized wood, reduced mostl)'- 

 into dust, which was ejected to the height of from ten to 

 fifteen feet, and fell in a black shower, mixed with the sand 

 which its rapid motion had forced along; at the same time* 

 the roaring and whistling produced by the impetuosity of the 

 air escaping from its confinement, seemed to increase the 

 horrible disorder of the trees which every where encount- 

 ered each other, being blown up, cracking and splitting, and 

 falling by thousands at a time. In the mean time, the sur- 

 face was sinking, and a black liquid was rising up to the bel- 

 ly of my horse, who stood motionless, struck with a panic 

 of terror. 



These occurrences occupied nearly two minutes; the 

 trees, shaken in their foundation, kept falling here and there, 

 and the whole suiface of the country remained covered with 

 holes, which, to compare small things with great, resembled 

 so many craters of volcanoes, surrounded with a ring of 

 carbonized wood and sand, which rose to the height of about 

 seven feet. 



I had occasion, a few months after, to sound the depth of 

 several of these holes, and found them not to exceed twenty 

 feet; but I must remark the quicksand had washed into 

 them. The country here was formerly perfectly level, and 

 covered with numerous small prairies of various sizes, dis- 

 persed through the woods. Now it is covered with slaches 

 (ponds) and sand hills or mounticules, which are found prin- 

 cipally where the earth was formerly the lowest; probably 

 because, in such places, the water broke through with more 

 facility. 



A circumstance worth noticing, was a tendency to car- 

 bonization, that I perceived in all the vegetable substances 

 soaking in the ponds produced by these eruptions. It was 

 about seven months after the event had taken place, that I 

 had occasion to make these remarks, on the spot before 

 mentioned. The same earthquake produced a lake between 

 St. Francis and Little Prairie, distant twenty-seven miles 

 from the Mississippi river. This lake much resembles the 

 Big lake on Red river, inasmuch as the trees are standing 

 upright in all of them, and sunk about thirty feet when the 



