Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-09-26
EARTHQUAKE OF 1911.
low SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE MIS-
sIssIPPI VALLEY WERE SHAKEN.
The Wonderful and Sudden Changes Ef-
feeted In and-About New Madrid-The
Evidence Of zell and Bringier.
For the Dispstch.l

lFor the Dispatch.l
Previous TO the. destruction OF LIS
gusyra and Caracas, in 1912, earth. !.
quskes were felt in South Carolina, aud
the shocks continued till those cities
were destroyed. The Valley of the
Mississippi. also, from the village Of
| New MADRID to the mouth Of the Ohio,
in one direction, and to the St. Francis
in another, was convulsed in such q de-
gree as to create new lakes and islands.
II has been remarked by Humboldt in
bis Cosmos that the earthquake Of New
Madrid presents one Of the few exam
pies on record Of the incessant qusking
Of the ground for several consecutive
months, far from any roicGno. Flint
the geographer, who visited the coun-
try seven years after the event, Informs
US that tract Of many miles in extent,
near the Little Prairie, became covered
with water three or four feet deep, and
when the water disappeared stratum
of sand was left in it's place. Large
lakes of twenty miles in extent were
formed in the course Of an hour, and
others were drained. The graveyard
at New Madrid was precipitated into
the bed Of the Mississippi; and it is
stated that the ground whereon the
town is built and the river bank for
fifteen miles above, sank eight feet be-
low their former level. The neighbour
ing forest presented for some years after
wards ga singular scene Of confusion,
the trees standing inclined in every d.
rection, and many having their trunks
and branches broken"
THE EARTH ROSE.
The inhabitants relate that the earth
rose in great undulations, and when
these reached a certain fearful height
the soil burst and vast volumes OF
water, sand, and pit-coal were dis
charged as high as to the tops Of trees.
Flint saw hundreds Of these deep
chasms remaining in 40 alluyial soil
seven years after. The people in the
country. although inexperienced in such
commissions, had remarked that the
chssms in the earth were in direction
from southwest to northeast, and they
accordingly felled the tallest trees, and,
laying them at right angles to the
chssms, stationed themselves upon
them. BY this invention, when chasms
opened more than once under these
trees, several persons were prevented
from being swallowed up. At one Pc
riod during this earthquake the ground
not far below New Madrid swelled mp
so as to arrest the Mississippi in It's
course and to cause a temporary RELAX
Of its waves. The motion Of some Of
the shocks is described as hayiog been
horizontal and OF others perpendicular,
and the vertical movement is said to
have been much less desolating than the
horizontal"
"THE SUNK COUNTRY"
Further on. Zell, from whose Prin-
ciples of Geology" the above paragraphs
are taken, remarks that 4" had an OPP
port1ni.y myself Of visiting the dis
.uibed region Of the Mississippi and
conversipg with many eye-witnesses Of
the catastrophe, and am therefore able
TO confirm the truth Of these statements,
and to add some remarks on the pre-
sent face and features of the country. |
skirted part Of the territory immedi-
ately west Of New Madrid, called the
sunk country which was for |
the first time permanently sub
merged during the earthquake of |
l8ll>12. 1t is said to extend along |
the course Of the White Water and its
tributaries for a distance Of between
seventy and eighty miles north and
south and thirty miles east and west. |
saw on its borders many full-grown
trees still standing leahess, the bottoms
of their trunks several feet under water,
and still greater number lying pros
trate. An active vegetation of aquatic
plants is already beginning to fill up |
some Of the shadows, and the sediment
washed in by occasional floods when
the Mississippi rises to an extraordi-
nary height contributes to convert
the sunk region into marsh and forest
land. Even on the dry ground along
the confines of the submerged area
observed in some places that all the
trees Of prior date to 1911 were dead
and leafess, though standing erect and
entire. They are supposed to have
been killed by the loosening of their
roots during the repeated undulations
which passed through the ground for
three months in succession.
A SCENE OF CONFUSION.
Mr.. BriDgier, an experienced engi-
neer Of New Orleans, who was on horse
back near New Madrid when some of
the severest shocks were experienced,
related to me lin lS46) that "as the
waves advanced the trees bent down,
and the instant afterwards, while re-
covering their position, they often met
those OF other trees similarly inclined,
so that their branches becoming inter-
locked, they were prevented from right
ing themselves again. The transit of
the wave through the woods vas marked
by the crashing noise Of countless
boughs-6rst heard on one side and
then on the other. At the same time
powerful jets of water, mixed with
sand, mud, and fragments of coaly
matter, were cast up, endangeriDg
the lives Of both horse and rider"
| was'curious to ascertain whether any
vestige still remained of these fountains
Of mud and water, and carefully exam
med between New Madrid and the Lit
tie Prairie several sink-holes," as
they are termed. They consist Of cavi-
ties from ten to thirty yards in width
and twenty feet or more in depth. and
are very conspicuous, ihterrupting the
level surface of fat alluvial plain.
| saw abundance Of sand, which some Of
the present inhabitants saw spouting
from these deep holes also fragments
Of decayed wood and black bituminous
shale, probably drifted down at some
former time in the main channel of
the Mississippi from the coal-felds