Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1856-06-25

bow of the vessel. 1t was long night
but morning dawned and showed them
that they were near the mouth of the
Ohio. The shores and the channel were
now equally unrecognizable, for every
thing seemed changed. About noon
that day they reached the small town of
New Madrid, on the right bank of the
Mississippi. Here they found the inhab-
itants in the greatest distress and con-
sternation; part of the population had
fled in terror TO the higher grounds, 9th
ers prayed to be taken on board, as the
earth was opening in fssures on every
side, and their houses hourly falling
around them.
Proceeding from thence, they found
the Mississippi, at all times fearful
stream, now unusually swollen, turbid and
full of trees; and after many days of
great danger, though they felt and per-
ceived no more of the earthquakes, they
reached their destination at Natchez, at
the close of the first week in January,
1919, to the great astonishment Of all.
the escape of the boat having been con-
sidered an impossibility.
At that time you floated for three or
four hundred miles on the river without
seeing human habitation.
Such was the voyage of the first steam
er. The natural convulsion, which COM
menced at the time of her descent, has
been but slightly alluded to, but will new
er be forgotten in the history Of the
West; and the changes wrought by it
throughout the whole alluvial region
through which the Ohio and Mississippi
pour their waters, were perhaps as re-
markable as anv on record. We
hear less of its effects, because the re-
gion in wi ich it occurred was of such
vast extent and so thinly peopled. That
part of the alluvial country which is very
contiguous 10 the point of junction of
the two rivers. and especially the vicin-
ity of New Madrid, seems 10 have been
the centre of The cnnxulsion. There.
during the years of 1911 and 1879. the
the earth broke into innumerable fs-
sures, the churchvard, with its dead, was
torn from the bank, and engulphed in the
turbid stream. To the present day it
would appear that frequent slight shocks
of earthquakes are there felt; and it is
asserted that in the vast swamp al the
back of the town, strange sounds may
at times be heard, as of some mighty
cauldron bubbling in the bowels of the
earth. Along the banks of the river,
thousands of acres with their gigantic
growth of forest and cane, were swallow
ed up, and lakes and ponds innumera-
bic were formed.
The earth, in many parts, was observ-
ed to burst suddenly open, and jets of
sand, mud, and water to shoot up into
the air. The beds of these giant streams
seemed totally overturned islands dis
appeared, and in many parts the course
of the river was completely changed
Great inundations were the consequence.
The clear waters of the St. Francis were
obstructed, the ancient channel destroy
ed, and the river spread over vast
tract of swamp. Ia many places the
Gaping earth un folded its secrets, and
the bones of the gigantic mastodon and
iclihyosaurus, hidden within its bosom
for ages. were brought 10 the surface
Boats and arks without number were
swallowed up, some buried by the fall
ing in of the banks, and others dragged
down with the islands to which they
were anchored. And, finally, you may
still meet and converse with those who
were on the mighty river of the West
when the whole stream ran towards its
source for an entire hour, and then re-
sumiDg its ordinary course, hurried them
helpless on its whirling surface with ac-
celebrated motion towards the Gulf.