848

EARTHQUAKE 0E THE SIISSISSIPPI VALLEY.

1811.

"From an eye-witness, who was then about forty miles below that town, in a flat boat, on hia way to New Orleans with a load of produce, and who narrated the scene to me, the agitation which convulsed the earth and the waters of the mighty Mississippi filled every living creature with horror. The first shock took place in the night, while the boat was lying at the shore in company with, several- others. At this period there was danger apprehended from the southern Indians, it being soon after tbe battle of Tippecanoe, and for safety several boats kept in company, for mutual defense in case of an attack.

"In the middle of the night there was a terrible shock and jarring of the boats, so that the crews were all awakened and hurried on deck with their weapons of defense in their hands, thinking the Indians were rushing on board. The ducks, geese, swans, and various other aquatic birds, whose numberless flocks were quietly resting in the eddies of the river, were thrown into the greatest tumult, and with loud screams expressed their alarm in accents of terror.

"The noise and commotion soon became hushed, and nothing could be discovered to excite apprehension, so that the boatmen concluded that the shock was occasioned by the falling in of a large mass of the bank of the river near them. As soon as it was light enough to distinguish objects, the crews were all up making ready to depart.

"Directly a loud roaring and hissing was heard, like the escape of steam from a boiler, accompanied by the most violent agitation of the shores and tremendous boiling up of the waters of the Mississippi in huge swells, rolling the waters below back on the descending stream, and tossing the boats about so violently that the men with difficulty could keep on their feet. The sandbars and points of the islands gave way, swallowed up in the tumultuous bosom of the river; carrying down with them the Cottonwood trees, cracking and crashing, tossing their arms to and fro, as if sensible of their danger, while they disappeai-ed beneath the flood.

"The water of the river, which the day before was tolerably clear, being rather low, changed to a reddish hue, and became thick with mud thrown up from its bottom; wdiile the surface, lashed violently by the agitation of the earth beneath, was covered with foam, wdiich, gathering into masses the size of a barrel, floated along on the trembling surface. The earth on the shores opened in wide fissures, and closing again, threw the water, sand and mud, in huge jets, higher than the tops of the trees.