The Litchfield County post. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1826-1829, 1826-11-07

ton, and in every angle to the earth and
the horizon. They described the undule-
ton Of the earth as resembling waves, in
creasing in elevation as they advanced, and
when they had attained certain fearful
height. the earth would burst, and vast vol
umes of water and sand and pit coal, were
discharged as high as the tops of the trees.
! / have seen a hundred of these chasms
| Which remain fearfully deep, although in a
very tender alluvial soil, and after a lapse
of seven years. Wholc districts were COW
cred with white sand, so as to become un-
inhabitable. The water at first covered
the whole country, particularly at the Little
Prairie and it must have been, indeed, a
scene of horror, in these deep forests and
in the gloom of the darkest night, and by
wadirg in the water to the middle, to fly
from those conclusions, which were occur
ring every few hours, with noise equally
terrible to the beasts and birds, as to men.
The birds themselves lost all power and
disposition to fly; and retreated to the bos-
on1s of men, their fellow sufferers in this
general CONFUSION. A few persons sunk
in these chasms, and were providentially
extricated. One persisted miserably on an
island, which retained its original level in
the midst of wide lake created by the
earthquake. The hat and clothes of this
man were found. A number persisted, who
sunk with their boats in the river. A burs-
ting of the earth Just below the village of
New Madrid, arrested this mighty stream
in its course, and caused rehux of its
waves, by which in little time a great
number of boats we're swept by the ascen-
ding current into the mouth of the Bayou,
carried out and left upon the dry earth,
when the accommodating waters Of the river
had again cleared their current.
There was great number of severe
shocks, but two series of conclusions were
particularly terrible; far more SO than the
rest. And they remark that the shocks
were clearly distinguishable into two clas-
SEES; those in which the motion was hori-
zontal, and those in which it was perpen-
dicular. The latter we're attended with
the explosions and the terrible mixture of
noises, that preceded and accompanied the
earthquakes, ina louder degree, but were
by no means so desolating and destructive
as the other. When they were felt, the
houses crumbled, the trees waved togeth-
err, the ground sunk and all the destructive
phenomena were more conspicuous. In
the interval of the earthquakes there was
one evening, and that brilliant and cloud
less one, in which the western sky was a
continual glare of vivid flashes of lightning,
and of repeated peals of subterraneah thun-
der, seeming to proceed, as the flashes did,
from below the horizon.-They remark
that the night so conspicuous for subtcrra-
nc an thunder, was the same period in which
the fatal earthquakes at Caracas occur
red, and they seem to suppose these fash
es and that event parts OF the same scene.
One result from these terrific phenome-
ma was very obvious. The people of this
village had been noted for their proAigacy
and impiety. In the midst of these scenes
of terror, all, Catholics and Protestants,
praying and profane, became Of one relig-
ion, and partook Of one feeling. Two
hundred people speaking English, French
and Spanish. crowded together. their visa
ges pale. the mothers embracing their chill
dren,--as soon as the omen that preceded
the earthquakes became visible, as soon as
the air became a little obscured, as though
a sudden mist arose from the east,-all, in
their different languages and forms, but all
deeply in earnest, betook themselves to the
voice of prayer. The cattle as much ter
ri6ed as the rational creatures, crowded a
bout the assemblage of men and seemed
to demand protection, or community OF
danger. One lady ran as far as her strength
would permit, and then fell exhausted ant
fainting, from which she never recovered
The general impulse, when the shocks com
menced, was to run; and yet when they
we're at the severest point of their motion
the people we're thrown on the ground a
almost every step. A French gentleman
told me that in escaping from his house
the largest in the village, he found that he
had left an infant behind, and he attempted
to mount up the raised piazza to recover
the child, and was thrown down dozer
times in succession. The venerable lady
in whose house we lodged, was extricated
from the ruins Of her house, having lost eve.
ry thing that appertained to her establish.
ment, which could be broken or destroyed
The people at the Little Prairie, whe
suffered most, had their settlement,-whicl
consisted of hundred families, and which
was located in wide and verv deep ant
fertile bottom, broken up. When passed
it, and stopped to contemplate the trace.