230 EARTHQUAKE OF 1811-12. [CHAP. XXXIII. 



of Guayra and Caraccas were laid in ruins. The 

 shocks were also felt in South Carolina. Humboldt 

 has remarked that the shocks of New Madrid are 

 the only examples on record, of the ground having 

 quaked almost incessantly for three months, at a 

 point so far remote from any active volcano. The 

 shocks were most violent in part of the region called 

 the Little Prairie, to the southward of New Madrid, 

 and they extended as far south as the river St. Francis, 

 and, northwards, as far as the mouth of the Ohio. 

 Although the country was thinly settled, and most 

 of the houses built of logs, the loss of life was con 

 siderable. From accounts published at the time, it 

 appears that the grave-yard of New Madrid was pre 

 cipitated into the Mississippi, the banks of which 

 gave way in many places, and the ground swelled up 

 so that the current of the river flowed backwards for 

 a time, carrying several flat boats northwards, against 

 the stream. In various parts of the region above 

 alluded to as having been convulsed, lakes twenty 

 miles and upwards in extent were formed, while 

 others which pre-existed were drained.* Hundreds 

 of chasms opened, and new islands appeared in the 

 Mississippi and its tributaries. Flint, the geographer, 

 who visited the country seven years after the event, 

 says that, at the time of his visit, a district west of 

 New Madrid still remained covered with water, and 

 that the neighbouring forest presented a scene of 

 great confusion, many trees standing inclined in 

 every direction, and others having their trunks and 



* Silliman s Journ., vol. xv. 1829. 



