CHAP. XXXIII.] EXCURSION TO &quot;SUNK COUNTRY.&quot; 177 



seen to flourish. On all sides, the ascent from the old bed of 

 the lake to its boundary, is by a steep slope, on ascending which 

 you reach a platform on a level with the top of the bank of the 

 Mississippi, which is about a mile distant. Mr. Hunter in 

 formed me that Lake Eulalie was formerly filled with clear 

 water, and abounded in fish, until it was suddenly drained by 

 the earthquake. In the clayey bottom, I traced the course of 

 two parallel fissures, by which the waters escaped. They are 

 separated from each other by a distance of about eight yards, 

 and are not yet entirely closed. Near their edges, much sand 

 and coal shale lie scattered, which were throw r n out of them when 

 they first opened. 



In regard to the origin of this black bituminous shale, so 

 abundantly cast out of chasms in this region, it belongs to the 

 alluvial formation, and is found, in digging wells, fifteen feet 

 deep, or sometimes nearer the surface. It was probably drifted 

 down at a former period by the current of the Mississippi, from 

 the coal-fields farther north. 



Having learned that still more striking monuments of the 

 earthquake were to be seen in the territory farther to the west 

 ward of New Madrid, I endeavored, but in vain, to hire a horse. 

 At length a merchant s widow kindly lent me a steed. To pro 

 cure a guide was impossible, all hands being fully employed. I 

 therefore set out alone through the forest, skirting the borders of 

 a swamp called the Bayou St. John, where I observed a great 

 many fallen trees, and others dead and leafless, but standing 

 erect. After riding some miles, I found my way to a farm, the 

 owner of which had witnessed the earthquake when a child. He 

 described to me the camping out of the people in the night when 

 the first shocks occurred, and how some were wounded by the 

 falling of chimneys, and the bodies of others drawn out of the 

 ruins. He confirmed the published statements of the inhabitants 

 having availed themselves of fallen trees to avoid being engulfed 

 in open fissures, and I afterward heard that this singular mode 

 of escape had been adopted in distant places, between which 

 there had been no communication, and that even children threw 

 themselves on the felled trunks. My new acquaintance then 



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