The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1886-09-18
EARTHQUAKES.


intervals until March, 1912. By
il the town of New Madrid, Mo-,
on the Mississippi opposite the
Kentucky shore, WAS ruined.
New Madrid had been founded
some years before IN the expecta-
ton of becoming a great city and
the metropolis of the Mississippi
valley. Now it is nothing but a
lonely village.
This great earthquake changed
the whole face of the country on
either side of the Mississippi over
an area extending FROM the Ohio
river three hundred miles south.
The ground rose and sank in great
undulations. Large lakes were
formed aud were drained again.
The surface of the earth burst
opeY in assures, always trembling
from northeast 20 the southwest.
These chasms were sometimes a
half mile wide, and from them mud
and water were spnrted as high
as the tops of trees, The inhabl-
tants, in terror, fed from their
homes, and some of them perished
in assures, while others were
crushed by falling trees. The chan
mel of the Mississippi was changed,
and rivers flowed where there was
dry land before. During the con-
tinuanre, of these convulslons the
inhabitants distinguished two
kinds of movements, the vertical
and horizontal, the latter being re.
garded as far more dcsolating
than the former. The section is
still known as the "Supk Country"
aud the traces of the great earth.
quakes are still there. In the
low grounds lies the rotting
trunks of trees thrown down BY
the convulsions. Re elfoot Lake,
the resort of the hunters, was al
most entirely created by 1t, and
half of the other lakes in that 10
cality owe their origin TO the same
cause. Tho great explorer and
scientist, Alexander Humboldt,
remarks that this presents one OF
the few examples of tho incessant
quaking ofthe ground for several
successive months far from any
volcano. This earthquake ceased
coincidently with that more de-
structivc convulsion which over.
threw the city,,of Caraccas in Veue'
zuea and killed thousands of her
Inhabitants.
The most severe earthquake
that has been recorded IN the mid
die and Eastern States was that
of November IS, 1885. The shock
was undoubtedly II wave promul
gated either from the same center
whence emanated the tremendous
disturbances that had destroyed
Lisbon on the 1st, of the month,
or from a center whose activity
had been stimulated by the con
tinued quaking that had prevailed
from Iceland 10 the Mediterranean.
This earthquake began in Massa
chusetts with a roaring noise like
that of thunder after a minutes
continuance of this there came
the first severe shock, like that of
long rolling sea-a swell so
great that men in the opeu fields
ran in terror to sieze something to
hold to. After two or three less
shocks came the most severe OF
all. 1t was u quick horizontal
tremor, with sudden jerks and
wrenches, continuing for two min.
utes. In Boston many buildings
were thrown down, and through
out the country stone fences were
thrown down. New springs were
opened, aud fish killed and floated
to the surface of the water.
One of the greatest earthquakes
ever known was that of Calabria
lie 1878. in which it is computed
that at least 100000 people per.
iehed, the city Messina, in Sicily,
being almost entirely destroyed.
The most disastrous of all earth
quakes on record was that of 526
A. D., in Asia Minor, in which
Gibbon computes 100000 persons
to have perished. The city of
Lisbon, in Portugal, on the MORN
ing of November l, 1755, was Wis
tied By one of the most memora-
BILE earthquakes in history. There
was a rumbling sound Immediate
ly followed by the great shock,
which threw down the larger por-
tion of the city. The sea retired
leaving the bar dry, and returned
in one minute as a great wave fifty
feet high. A part of the city was
permanently engulfed to the depth
of go feet. Sixty thousand people
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