294 MITCHILL ON THE EARTHQUAKES OF 1811, 1812, AND 1813. 



chaotic mixture of the elements. In some places, sand, mud, water, 

 and stone-coal were reported to have been thrown up thirty yards high. 



Thirdly; a more full and circumstantial history of those eruptions 

 and commotions was drawn up by Mr. William Leigh Pierce, who, at 

 the time of their occurrence, was passing down the Mississippi in a boat. 



After having described the occurrences of the 16th, 17th, and 18th, 

 up to the 19th, he wrote from the Big Prairie, under date of December 

 25th, to his acquaintance in New-York, a very circumstantial account, 

 which was published in the journals of the time. His narrative abounds 

 with facts showing the irresistible and ruinous effects of the commotion, 

 which he thinks might be considered as protracted to the surprising 

 length of one hundred and seventy-eight hours. 



Fourthly; to these I subjoin another respectable communication, 

 from Mr. Joseph Ficklin of Russelville, (Ken.) who thus describes the 

 earthquakes, in a letter dated February 5, 1812: " The shocks continue. 

 The accounts that you will see in the Nashville and Lexington papers 

 may be confided in. I have conversed with several persons from New- 

 Madrid, all of whom confirm the above. The bottom of the Mississippi 

 river, two hundred miles west of this place, was cracked in some places 

 fifteen feet in width, and cast up warm water sufficient to inundate the 

 settlement from one to two feet. In this situation, the poor inhabitants 

 sought for the highest ground, where some remained for seventeen 

 days, looking for the earth to swallow them up. Indians who were two 

 hundred and fifty miles beyond the Mississippi, and about five hundred 

 west of this place, relate sights of horror, in the tumbling down of 

 rocks, the fall of trees, and the lights of fire ; which prove to my satis- 

 faction that the cause of this alarm lies in the mountains or hills which 

 are between the head of the Arkansaw river, and the waters of the 

 Missouri, and not more than six hundred miles from this place, a little 

 south of west. The shocks are much more severe one hundred and 



