MTTCHILL ON THE EARTHQUAKES OP 1811, 1812, AND 1813. 301 



to his head to keep his hat on. On the current's running its natural 

 course, which it did gradually, he continued to proceed down the river, 

 and at about daylight he came to a most terrific fall, which, he thinks, 

 Was at least six feet perpendicular, extending across the river, and 

 about half a mile wide. The whirls and ripplings of this rapid were 

 such that his vessel was altogether unmanageable, and destruction 

 seemed inevitable ; some of the former he thinks were, at least, thirty 

 feet deep, and seemed to be formed by the water's being violently 

 sucked into some chasm in the river's bottom. He and his men were 

 constantly employed in pumping and bailing, by which, and the aid of 

 Providence, he says, he got safe through! As soon as he was able to 

 look round, he observed whole forests on each bank fall prostrate, to 

 use his own comparison, like soldiers grounding their arms at the word 

 of command. On his arrival at New-Madrid he found that place a 

 complete wreck, sunk about twelve feet below its level, and entirely 

 deserted; its inhabitants, with those of the adjacent country, who had 

 fled there for refuge, were encamped in its neighbourhood : he repre- 

 sents their cries as truly distressing. A large barge loaded with five 

 hundred barrels of flour, and other articles, was split from end to end, 

 and turned upside down at the bank. Of nearly thirty loaded boats 

 only this and one more escaped destruction ; the water ran twelve feet 

 perpendicular, and threw many of them a great many rods on shore ; 

 several lives were lost among the boatmen. Another fall was formed 

 about eight miles below the town, similar to the one above, the roaring 

 of which he could distinctly hear at New-Madrid. He waited five days 

 tor the fall to wear away; during that time the earth was constantly 

 trembling, at intervals of about five minutes. He observed many fis- 

 sures in the earth below the town, five or six feet wide, extending in 

 length out of sight, and one side several feet lower than the other. On 

 ihe fifth day he pas6ed the lower fall which had worn away to a practi- 



