12 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
the entrance of an estuary on the Norfolk or Suffolk coast, 
the sea, during some high tide or storm, has often breached 
the barrier and inundated again the interior country. 
The frequent fluctuations in the direction of river- 
courses, and the activity exerted by running water in 
various parts of the basin of the Mississippi, are partly, 
perhaps, to be ascribed to the co-operation of subterranean 
movements, which alter from time to time the relative 
levels of various parts of the surface. So late as the year 
1812, the whole valley, from the mouth of the Ohio to 
that of the St. Francis, including a front of three hundred 
miles, was convulsed to such a degree, as to create new 
islands in the river, and lakes in the alluvial plain, some 
of which were twenty miles in extent. We shall allude 
to this event when we treat of earthquakes, but may state 
here that they happened exactly at the same time as the 
fatal convulsions at Caraccas; and the district shaken was 
nearly five degrees of latitude farther removed from the 
great centre of volcanic disturbance, than the basin of the 
Red River, to which we before alluded.* When coun- 
tries are liable to be so extensively and permanently 
affected by earthquakes, speculations concerning changes 
in their hydrographical features must not be made without 
regard to the igneous as well as the aqueous causes of 
change. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the ine- 
qualities produced even by one shock, might render the 
study of the alluvial plain of the Mississippi, at some future 
period, most perplexing to a geologist who should reason 
on the distribution of transported materials, without being 
aware that the configuration of the country had varied 
materially during the time when the excavating or remov- 
ing power of the river was greatest. The region convulsed 
in 1812, of which New Madrid was the centre, exceeded 
in length the whole basin of the Thames, and the shocks 
were connected with active volcanoes more distant from 
New Madrid than are the extinct craters of the Eyfel or 
of Auvergne from London. If, therefore, during the innu- 
merable eruptions which formerly broke forth in succession 
in the parts of Europe last alluded to, the basin of the prin- 
cipal river of our island was frequently agitated, and the 
relative levels of its several parts altered (an hypothesis in 
perfect accordance with modern analogy), the difficulties 
of some theorists might, perhaps, be removed; and they 
might no longer feel themselves under the necessity of 
resorting to catastrophes out of the ordinary course of 
Nature, when they endeavour to explain the alluvial phe- 
nomena of that district. — Ly ell’s Geology. 
* Darby mentions beds of marine shells on the banks of Red River, which 
seem to indicate that Lower Louisiana is of recent formation : its elevation, per- 
haps, above the sea, may have been due to the same series of earthquakes which 
continues to agitate equatorial America. 
THE WISHTONWISH, 
OR PRAIRIE DOG. 
The name of Wishtonwish has lately become familiar, 
from a celebrated novel, by Cooper, bearing this title, 
which is the Indian name for an animal described by Say, 
in Long’s Expedition. 
Mr. Cooper has mistaken the animal, and describes it 
as a bird, known by the name of Whippoorwill. Say 
remarks, that “this interesting and sprightly little animal 
has received the absurd and inappropriate name of Prairie 
dog, from a fancied resemblance of its warning cry to the 
hurried barking of a small dog. This sound may be imi- 
tated with the human voice, by the pronunciation of the 
syllable cheh, cheh, cheh, in a sibilated manner, and in 
rapid succession, by propelling the breath between the tip 
of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. 
As particular districts, of limited extent, are, in general, 
occupied by the burrows of these animals, such assem- 
blages of dwellings are denominated Prairie dog villages 
by hunters and others who wander in these remote regions. 
These villages, like those of man, differ widely in the 
extent of surface which they occupy; some are confined to 
an area of a few acres, others are bounded by a circumfer- 
ence of many miles. Only one of these villages occurred 
between the Missouri and the Pawnee towns; thence to the 
Platte they were much more numerous. 
The entrance to the burrow is at the summit of the little 
mound of earth brought up by the animal during the pro- 
gress of the excavation below. 
These mounds are sometimes inconspicuous, but gene- ~ 
rally somewhat elevated above the common surface, though 
rarely to the height of eighteen inches. Their form is that 
of a truncated cone, on a base of two or three feet, perfo- 
rated by a comparatively large hole or entrance at the 
summit or in the side. The whole surface, but more 
particularly the summit, is trodden down and compacted, 
like a well worn pathway. The hole descends vertically 
to the depth of one or two feet, whence it continues in an 
oblique direction downward. 
A single burrow may have many occupants. We have 
seen as many as seven or eight individuals sitting upon one 
mound. As they pass the winter in a lethargic sleep, they 
lay up no provision of food for that season, but defend them- 
selves from its rigors by accurately closing up the entrance 
of the burrow. The further arrangements which the Prai- 
rie dog makes for its comfort and security are worthy of at- 
tention. He constructs for himself a very neat globular cell 
with fine dry grass, having an aperture at top, large enough 
to admit the finger, and so compactly formed that it might 
almost be rolled over the floor without receiving injury.” 
