Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1867-03-28

titled to the credit of the follow
ing interesting Renaissance:
1t was in the years 1911 and
1872 that 80 many earthquakes
occurred in the Southern and
Western country, causing villages
to tumble in ruins, an entire
change in the face of the country
and a vast destruction of property.
On the line of the Mississippi,
particularly, one of these dread,
full phenomenons occurred in those
years, which was distinctly felt in
st. Louis, and caused much alarm
to its inhabitants.
An eyewitness, who was on a
fiatboat at the time, on his way
to New Orleans with a load of
produce, and afterwards returned
to st. Louis, described the scene
as heart-rending, and filling every
living creature with horror. His
boat at the time was about forty
miles below New Madrid.
The first shock took place ON
the night of Dec. 16, 1911, while
the boat was lying at the shore in
company with many others. AT
this period there was danger ap.
pretended from the Southern In
dians, it being soou after the bat
tie of Tippecanoe, and, for safety,
several boats kept in company
for mutual defence in case of an
attack. In the middle of the
night there was terrible shock
and jarring of the boats, SO that
all the crews were all awakened
and hurried on deck with their
weapons of defence in their hands,
thinking the Indians were rushing
on board. The ducks, geese, and
various other aquatic birds, whose
numberless f1ocks were quietly
resting in the eddies of the river,
were thrown into the greatest tn.
multi, and with loud screams ex-
pressed their alarm in accents of
terror.
The noise and commotion soon
became hushed, and nothing could
be discovered to excite apprehen-
sion, so that the boatmen conclu-
ded that the shock was occasioned
by the falling in of large mass
of the bank of the river near them.
AS soon as there was light enough
to distinguish. objects, the crews
were all making preparations to
depart. Directly a loud roaring
and Kissing was heard, like the
escape of steam from a boiler, ac-
companied by the most violent
agitation of the shores, and ire
mendous boiling up of the waters
of the Mississippi, in huge swells,
rolling the water, and tossing the
boats so violently that the men
could with difficulty keep their
feet. The sand-bars and points
of the islands gave way, swallow
ed up In the tumultuous bosom of
the river, carrying down with
them cottonwood trees, cracking
and crashing, tossing their arms
to and fro, as if sensible of their
danger, while they disappeared
beneath the flood. The water of
the river, which. the day before
was tolerable clear, being rather
low, changed TO a reddish hue,
and became thick by the agitation
of the earth beneath, and covered
with foam, which gathered into
masses the size of a barrel, foated
along on the trembling surface
The earth on the shores opened in
wide assures, and closing again
threw the water, sand, and mud
in huge jets higher than the tops
of the trees. The atmosphere
was filled with thick vapor or gas,
to which the light impaired a pur-
pie tinge altogether different in
appearance from the autumnal
haze of the Indian summer, or
that of smoke.
From the temporary check TO
the current, by the heaving up of
the bottom, the sinking of the
bank and sand-bars into the bed
of the stream, the river rose in a
few minutes five or six feet, and
impatient of the restraint, again
rushed forward with redoubled
imDetuosity, hurrying along the
boats now let loose by the horror
struck boatmen, as in less danger
In the water than at the shore,
where the banks threatened every
moment to destroy them by the,
falling earth. or carry them down