On the Elevation of the Banks of the Mississippi. 295 



1, Madrid.— 2, Madrid Bend.— 3, A swamp that was elevated.- 4, A bed of coal 

 under the river. — 5, Land elevated. — 6, Lakes formed : they are not all one, as re- 

 presented in the drawing; I know too little to divide them: that there is a string 

 of them there is all I know about it. — 7, Land depressed.— 8, This part of Madrid 

 bend is now forming by the river. 



of the river the earth cracked open, and streams of fire and red hot 

 sand were thrown up. Some of these cracks were of considerable 

 length and depth, and three or four feet wide. I saw some that 

 were still four feet wider, and four feet deep, and extended, I was 

 told, for miles. The shocks extended to all the surrounding country, , 

 for hundreds of miles, and were so violent as to shake down chimneys 

 in many places, and even houses in Madrid and its vicinity, Madrid 

 was then, and is still, a small place, and the surrounding region was 

 then but thinly settled. That whole region (so far as I could ascer- 

 tain) is bedded on quicksand ; at least that which is near the river. 

 This is proved by the sinking of wells, as well as by the fact that 

 the falling of large timber shakes the earth to a great distance. This 

 I have felt. Just below the surface of the river, at low water, is seen, 

 as I was told, a bed of coal along round the Madrid bend ; proving 

 that the river has washed its channel through a bed of coal at that 

 place. The bank marked by the figure 7, on which Madrid stands^ 

 was above the highest water mark before the earthquakes, but since 



