174 EARTHQUAKE OF 1811-12. [CHAP. XXXITI. 



close to the bank, will, in a few years, pass freely over the site of the 

 humble mansion where we had been sleeping ; and the geographer, 

 in constructing a map half a century hence, may have to transfer to 

 the State of Kentucky, the spot where I saw a garden flourish. 



I examined the perpendicular face of the bank with some 

 interest, as exemplifying the kind of deposits which the Missis 

 sippi throws down near its margin. They differ in no way 

 from accumulations of sand and loam of high antiquity with 

 which the geologist is familiar ; some beds are made up of hori 

 zontal layers, in others they are slanting, or in what is called 

 cross stratification. Some are white, others yellow, and here 

 and there a seam of black carbonaceous matter, derived apparent 

 ly from the destruction of older strata, is conspicuous. 



I next set out on an excursion to examine those districts, 

 where I heard that some superficial effects of the great earth 

 quake of 1811 were still visible. The reader should be remind 

 ed that this convulsion occurred contemporaneously with one of 

 the most fatal earthquakes of South America, when the towns 

 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, northward, 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 considerable. 

 From accounts published at the time, it appears that the grave 

 yard of New Madrid was precipitated 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 backward for a time, 

 carrying several flat boats northward, against the stream. In 

 various parts of the region above alluded to as having been con 

 vulsed, lakes twenty miles and upward in extent were formed, 

 while others which pre-existed were drained.* Hundreds of 

 * SiJliman s Journal, vol. xv. 1829. 



