The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1874-04-22
VOLCANIC DISTURBANCES.


A THRILLING ACCOUNT OF ONE IN
OLDEN TINE, AT NEW MADRID, ON
THE MIssIssIPPI-AND A FEW SUG-
GEsTIoNs AS TO THE VOLCANIC IN
DICATIoNs IN BALD MOUNTAIN, N. C.
It will perhaps interest our read
ers in these times of excitement
about earthquakes and volcanic dis
turbanccs in our mountain region. TO
read the following account of the
'sNew Madrid volcanic disturbance
on the Mississippi in 1912, etc. 1t
is letter written to | I4orenzo Dow,
by one of the eye-witnesses of the
fearful scenes, and was published by
him in his journal, from which we
copy:
"NEw MADRID, TERRITORY OF MISSOURI,
March ~, 1916,
"DEAR SIR I'm compliance of
your request, / will give you his.
tory as full detail as the limits of
letter will permit, of the late awful
visitation of Providence in this place
and its vicinity.
ION the 10th day of December,
1911, about two o'clock, a. m., we
were visited by violent shock Of an
earthquake. accompanied 10y very
awful noise resembling loud but dis
tant thunder. but more hoarse and
vibrating, which was followed in a
few minutes by the complete Saturt-
ton Of the atmosphere eeith sulphur
OWS C0pour, causing total darkness.
The screams OF the affrighted inhab-
itants, running to and fro, not know
ing where to go or what to do-the
cries of the fowls and beasts of ev-
cry species-the cracking of trees
falling. and the roaring of the Mis-
sissippi,-the current of which was
retrOgrdde for few minutes, owing,
as is supposed, to an irruption in its
bed-formeG a scene truly horrible
From that time until about sunrise
number of lighter shocks occur
red, at which time one still
more violent than the first took place,
with the same accompaniments as
the first, and the terror which had
been excited in every one, and in
deed in all animal nature, was now,
if possible, doubled. The inhabi-
tants fed in every direction to the
country. supposing, Gf it can be ad-
mitted that their minds were exer-
cised at ALI that there was less
danger at O. distance from, than near
to the river. In one person, a fe-
male, the alarm was SO great that
she tainted, and could not be recov-
cred. There were several shocks of
day, but lighter than those already
mentioned, until the 22nd of JAN
uary, 1872, when one occurred as
violent as the severest of the former
ones, accompanied by the same phe-
nomena as the former. From this
time till the 4th of February the
earth was in continued agitation,
visibly waving as gentle sea. On
that day there was another shock,
nearly as hard as the preceding ones.
Next day four such, ana one the 7th,
at about 4 o 'ctoct, a. M, a concus
sion took place so much more violent
than those which had preceded it,
that it is denominated the hard
shock. The awful darkness of the
atmosphere, which as formerly was
saturated with sulphurous vapour,
and the violence of the tempestuous
laundering noise that accompanied
it, together with all the other phe-
nomena mentioned as accompanying
the former ones, formed q scene the
description of which would require
the most sublimely fanciful imagina-
ton.
. AT first the Mississippi seemed
TO recede from its banks, and its
waters gathering up like mountain,
leaving for moment many boats,
which were here on their way to New
Orleans, on the bare sand. in which
time the poor sailors made their es-
cape from them. 1t then, rising ff-
teen or twenty feet perpendicularly,
and expanding, as it were, at the
same moment the banks were over
flowed with a retrograde current,
rapid as torrent,-the boats which
before had been left on the sand
were now torn from their moOrings,
and suddenly driven up little creek,
ut the mouth of which they laid, to
the distance in some Instances of
nearly a quarter of a mile. The riv-
er falling Immediately, as rapidly as
it had risen, receded within its
banks again with such violence that
it took with it whole groves of young
cottonwood trees which ledged its
borders. They were broken off with
such regularity, in some instances,
that persons who had not witnessed
the fact, would be with difficulty
persuaded that it had not been the
work of art. A great many fish
were left on the banks, being unable
to keep pace with the water. The
river was literally covered with the
wrecks of boats, and it ID said that
one was wrecked IN which there was
a LAZY and six children, all Of whom
were lost.
In all the hard shocks mentioned,