MITCHILL ON THE EARTHQUAKES OF 1811, 1812, AND 1813. 303 



he resided during their occurrence. He travelled with me from Wash- 

 ington to Fredericktown, on the 3d of July, 1812, and parted with me 

 at that place on the morning of the 4th, he journeying to the westward 

 by the way of Hagerstown, and I proceeding southwestwardly to Har- 

 per's Ferry, and its vicinity. This gentleman, among other matters, 

 declared to me, that he had kept a record or memorandum of the shocks 

 of these earthquakes, until they exceeded Jive hundred, and then ceased 

 to note them any more, because he became weary of the task. 



The commotions, however, did not end here. They were renewed 

 from time to time. My correspondent, Peter H. Cole, wrote me, in a 

 letter dated at Clarksville, in Montgomery county, Tennessee, under 

 date of December 15, 1312, as follows: "The earthquakes continue 

 to visit us. We had a tolerably severe one on the morning of the 14th 

 instant. The 16th instant will make one year since they commenced. 

 They have destroyed a number of chimneys in this state, and terrified 

 many of the inhabitants." 



So, on the 24th of November, 1812, a shock was again felt in the 

 morning, near Russelville, in Kentucky. 



The same gentleman afterwards, in a communication from the same 

 place, of January 26, 1813, furnished additional facts. " In the month 

 of September," he stated, " I visited a spring of about the distance of 

 fourteen miles from my residence. It was situated on the bank of a 

 creek that issued forth strong sulphureous water. The smell was evi- 

 dent to a considerable distance. It received its sulphureous impregna- 

 tion from a very heavy earthquake that occurred in January. Before 

 that event it was a limestone water. On that occasion a new limestone 

 spring broke out about twenty feet above the original spring; and to 

 this day, the respective fountains pour forth their calcarious and sul- 

 phureous waters, in distinct currents. Some springs ceased to run for 

 some time ; and others ran muddy several hours after the earth had 



