CHAP. XXXIIL] EARTHQUAKE OF 1811-12. 231 



branches broken. He also saw hundreds of deep 

 chasms remaining in the alluvial soil, which were 

 produced, according to the inhabitants, by the burst 

 ing of the earth, which rose in great undulations, and 

 discharged vast volumes of water, sand, and coaly 

 matter, thrown up as high as the tops of the trees. 

 As the shocks lasted throughout a period of three 

 months, the country people remarked that, in given 

 districts, there were certain prevailing directions in 

 which these fissures opened, and they accordingly 

 felled the tallest trees, making them fall at right 

 angles to the direction of the chasms. By stationing 

 themselves on these, they often escaped being swal 

 lowed up when the earth opened beneath them. 

 Some of the shocks were perpendicular, while others, 

 much more desolating, were horizontal, or moved 

 along like great waves. 



Before I left New Orleans, Mr. Bringier, the engi 

 neer, related to me that he was on horseback near New 

 Madrid, in 1811, when some of the severest shocks 

 were experienced, and that, as the waves advanced, he 

 saw the trees bend down, and often, the instant after 

 wards, when in the act of recovering their position, meet 

 the boughs of other trees similarly inclined, so as to 

 become interlocked, being prevented from righting 

 themselves again. The transit of the wave through 

 the woods was marked by the crashing noise of 

 countless branches, first heard on one side and then 

 on the other. At the same time, powerful jets of 

 water, mixed with sand, mud, and pieces of bitu 

 minous coaly shale, were cast up with such force, that 

 both horse and rider might have perished, had the 



