456 



THE 'SUNK COUNTEY' OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [Ch. XIX. 



movements have altered, so lately as the years 1811-12, the 

 relative levels of various parts of the basin of the Mississippi, 

 situated 300 miles north-east of Lake Bistineau. In those 

 years the great valley, from the mouth of the Ohio to that of 

 St. Francis, including a tract 300 miles in length, and ex- 

 ceeding in area the whole basin of the Thames, was convulsed 

 to such a degree, as to create new islands in the river, and 

 lakes in the alluvial plain. Some of these were on the left 

 or east bank of the Mississippi, and were twenty miles in 

 extent ; as, for example, those named Eeelfoot and Obion in 

 Tennessee, formed in the channels or valleys of small streams 



bearing the same names. 



But the largest area affected by the great convulsion lies 



eight or ten miles to the westward of the Mississippi 



from 



New Madrid, in Missour 



It is 



called ' the sunk country,' and is said to extend along the 



White 



of between seventy and eighty miles north and south, and 



) east and west. Throughout this area, 



miles or mor 



innumerable 



prostrate, are seen ; and so great is the extent of lake and 

 marsh, that an active trade in the skins of musk-rats, mink, 

 otters, and other wild animals, is now carried on there. In 

 March, 1846, I skirted the borders of the ' sunk country ' 

 nearest to New Madrid, passing along the Bayou St. John 

 and Little Prairie, where dead trees of various kinds, some 

 erect in the water, others fallen, and strewed in dense masses 

 over the bottom, in the shallows, and near the shore, were 



I also beheld countless rents in the adjoining 



movements 



conspicuous. 



dry alluvial plains, 



1811-12, and still open, though the rains, frost, and river 



inundations, have greatly diminished their original depth. 



I 



moreover 



sink 



om 



in depth, which interrupt the general level of the plain 

 These were formed by the spouting out of large quantities 



of 



mud 



* For an account of the 'sunk 1811-1812, see Lyell's Second Visit to 



• - • • • 



country,' shaken by the earthquake of the United States, ch. xxxm. 





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