MITCHILL ON THE EARTHQUAKES OF 1311, 1812, AND 1813. 295 



fifty miles west of this than they are here. Fortunately there are no 



brick or stone houses near the seat of danger to destroy the people. 



The Indians cannot have suffered much in their tents and bark houses. 



But the United States will suffer in the sales of their public lands west 



of the Mississippi for an age. At least the present generation must be 



buried before the spirit of wandering, in that direction, revives; and 



may it not be an advantage that some power exists to fix a boundary 



for our fellow citizens; for my own part, I am pleased in viewing the 



benefits which my country will derive from this great shock. We had 



one last night." 



Fifthly; there is further information contained in a letter from a 



gentleman at the mouth of Cumberland river to his friend in Woodford 

 o 



county, Kentucky, dated February 10, 1812; it was published in the 

 newspapers of that state, and corroborates substantially the recitals of 

 the other witnesses. 



Sixthly ; Daniel Bedinger, Esq. who was passing down the Missis- 

 sippi, in a boat, at the very time, was a witness of the occurrences, near 

 him; and he described them in his journal, dated at New-Orleans, 

 January 15, 1812: He bears witness of the noises that attended the 

 shocks ; the froth that formed on the surface of the river from the 

 bursting of air bubbles ; and of the elevation of innumerable logs and 

 trees from the bottom of the Mississippi. Cracks and rents in the 

 earth and the falling of banks were frequent and terrible. 



The earthquakes were not felt quite so strongly at or below New- 

 Orleans. 



In all these shakings of the ground it is particularly to be observed, 

 that there were but slight indications of them at Baltimore, or in any 

 place to the eastward or northward. The evidence from Philadelphia 

 and New-York was of a dubious character; though some persons at the 

 latter place, and at Newark, assured me they felt several small concus- 



