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110 EEFLEOTIONS ON EAIITIIQUAKES OF 19th CENTURY. [Ch. XXVIII 



New Madr 



was suddenly drained during tlie earthquake. The parallel 

 fissures bj which the water escaped were not yet entirely 

 closed, and all the trees growing on its bottom were at the 

 time of my visit less than 34 years old. They consisted of 

 cotton-wood, willows, the honey -locust, and other species 

 differing from those clothing the surrounding higher grounds 

 which are more elevated by 12 or 15 feet. On them the 



um 



We 



many of them of ancient date, were flourishino-. 



Reflections on the earthquakes of the nineteenth century. 

 are now about to pass on to the events of the eighteenth 

 century : but before we leave the consideration of those 

 already enumerated, let us pause for a moment, and reflect 

 how many remarkable facts of geological interest are afforded 

 by the earthquakes above described, though they constitute 

 but a small part of the convulsions even of half a century. 

 ISTew rocks have risen from the waters; new hot springs 

 have burst out, and the temperature of others has been 

 altered. A large tract in New Zealand has been upraised 

 from 1 to 9 feet above its former level, and another con- 

 tiguous region depressed several feet, and in the same archi- 

 pelago a fault or displacement of the rocks nearly 100 miles 

 long and about 9 feet in vertical height has been produced. 

 The coast of Chili has been thrice permanently elevated ; a 

 considerable tract in the delta of the Indus has sunk down, 

 and some of its shallow channels have become navigable ; an 

 adjoining part of the same district, upwards of 50 miles in 

 length a.nd 16 in breadth, has been raised about 10 feet above 

 its former level ; part of the great plain of the Mississippi, 

 for a distance of 80 miles in length by 30 in breadth, has 

 sunk down several feet ; the town of Tomboro has been sub- 

 merged, and 12,000 of the inhabitants of Sumbawa have been 

 destroyed. Yet, with a knowledo-e of these and other terrific 



catastrophes, witnessed during so brief a period by the 

 present generation, will the geologist declare with perfect 

 composure that the earth has at length settled into a state 

 of repose ? Will he continue to assert that the chai _ 

 relative level of land and sea, so common in former ages of 



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