240 THE EARTHQUAKE. 



I was not, however, without great apprehension respecting my fa- 

 mily, from which I was yet many miles distant, fearful that where they 

 were the shock might have caused greater havock than I had witnessed. 

 I gave the bridle to my steed, and was glad to see him appear as anxious 

 to o-et home as myself. The pace at which he galloped accomplished 

 this sooner than I had expected, and I found, with much pleasure, that 

 hardly any greater harm had taken place than the apprehension excited 

 for my own safety. 



Shock succeeded shock almost every day or night for several weeks, 

 diminishing, however, so gradually as to dw-indle away into mere vibra- 

 tions of the earth. Strange to say, I for one became so accustomed to 

 the feeling as rather to enjoy the feai's manifested by others. I never 

 can forget the effects of one of the slighter shocks which took place when 

 I was at a friend's house, where 1 had gone to enjoy the merriment that, 

 in our western country, attends a wedding. The ceremony being per- 

 formed, supper over, and the fiddles tuned, dancing became the order of 

 the moment. This was merrily followed up to a late hour, when the 

 party retired to rest. We were in what is called, with great propriety, 

 a Log-house, one of large dimensions, and solidly constructed. The 

 owner was a physician, and in one comer were not only his lancets, tour- 

 niquets, amputating-knives, and other sanguinary apparatus, but all the 

 drugs which he employed for the relief of his patients, arranged in jars 

 and phials of different sizes. These had some days before made a narrow 

 escape from destruction, but had been fortunately preserved by closing 

 the doors of the cases in which they were contained. 



As I have said, we had all retired to rest, some to dream of sighs and 

 smiles, and others to sink into oblivion. Morning was fast approaching, 

 when the rumbling noise that precedes the earthquake began so loudly, 

 as to waken and alarm the whole party, and drive them out of bed in the 

 greatest consternation. The scene which ensued it is impossible for me 

 to describe, and it would require the humorous pencil of Cruickshank 

 to do justice to it. Fear knows no restraints. Every person, old and 

 young, filled with alarm at the creaking of the log-house, and appre- 

 hending instant destruction, rushed wildly out to the grass enclosure 

 fronting the building. The full moon was slowly descending from her 

 throne, covered at times by clouds that rolled heavily along, as if to con- 

 ceal from her view the scenes of terror which prevailed on the earth be- 

 low. On the grass-pla,t we all met, in such condition as rendered it next 



