The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1827-01-03
The Earthquake at Nsso-.Modrd
an 1912.

The following very interesting account Of this
Earthquake is extracted from Flint's Ten
Years in the Valley Of the Mississippi"
From all accounts, corrected one by
another, and compared with the very
imperfect narratives which were pub
lished, infer that the shock of these
earthquakes in the immediate vicinity
of the centre Of their force, must have
equslled, in the terrible heavings of the
earth, any thing Of the kind whifh has
been recorded. do not believe that
the public have ever yet had any ade-
quate idea Of the violence of these con-
cussiOas. We are accustomed 10 meas
ure this by the buildings overturned,
and the mortality that results. Here
this country was thinly settled. The
houses, fortunately, were frail and Of
logs, the most difficult to overturn that
could be constructed. Yet, as it was,
whole tracts were plunged into the bed
Of the river. The graveyard at New
[ Madrid, with all its sleeping tenants,
was preeipitated into the bed of the
stream. Most of the houses we're
thrown down. Large lakes of twenty
miles in extent were made in an hour.
Other lakes were drained. The whole
country, 10 the mouth Of the Ohio in
one direction, aud to ST. Francis on the
other, including front Of three hun
dred miles, was convulsed to such de-
gree as TO create lakes and islands, the
number Of which ia not yet known-to
cover tract Of many miles 10 extent,
near the Little Prairie, with water
| three or four feet deep; and when the
water disappeared, stratum of sand of
the same thickness was left Units place.
The trees split in the middle, lashed
one to another, and are still visible over
great tracts of country, inchning in eve
~ direction, and in every angle to the
earth and the horizon They describ-
ed the undulation of the earth as resem-
bling waves, increasing in elevation as
they advanced, and when they had al
tanned certain fearful height, the earth
would burst, and vast volumes of water
and sand and pit coal, were discharged
as high as the tops of the trees. have
seen hundred Of these chasms which
remain feariulty deep, although in a
very tender alluEial sell, and after a
lapse of seven years. Whole districts
were covered with white sand, so az to
become uninhabitable. The water at
FIRST covered the whole country, partic-
ulsgly at the little Prairie and il must
have been, indeed, q scene of horror.
in these deep forests, and 10 the gloom Of
the darkest night, and by wadipg IN the
wafer TO the middle, to fly from those
conclusions, which were occurring eve
ry few hours, with a noise equally ter
! rible TO beasts and birds az 10 men. The
} birds themselves lost all power and dis
J position to fly; and retreaaed to the bc-
SONS of men, their fellow-sufferers, in
| this general convulsion.
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 distinguished
into two classes those in which the
motion was horizontal, and those in
which it was perpendicular. The latteS
we're attended with the explosions, and
terrible mixture of noises that preceded
and accompanied the earthquakes in a
louder degree, but were by no means so
desolating and destructive as the other.
When they were felt, the houses crurn-
} bled, the trees waved together, the
ground sunk, and all the destructive
: phenomena we're more conspicuous.-
10 the interval Of The earthquake there
was one evening, and that a brilliant
and cloudless one, in which the western
sky was a continued glare Of vivid flask
es Of lightning, aad Of repeated peals Of
Subterranean thunder, seeming 10 pro-
coed, as The flashes did, from below the
horiEon.-They remark that the night
so conspicuous for sub,srranean thun-
der, was the same period in which the
fatal earthquake at Caracas occurred,
and they seem TO suppose these flashes
and that event parts OF the same scene.
One result from these terrible phe-
nomena was very obvious. The peo-
pie, Of this village had been noted for
their pro6igacy and impiety. In the
midst of these scenes of terror. all.
Catholics and Protestants, praying and
profape, became Of one religion, and
partook Of one feeling. Two hundred
people, speaking English, French and
Spanish, crowded together, their yisaR-
les pale, the mothers embracing their
tchildren. As soon as the omen that
lpreceded the earthquake bscame vist.