Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/274

 214 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOUEI their houses into the open. The shocks con- tinued; they were accompanied by low rum- bling sound ; the earth was thrown into waves like the waves of the sea ; this waving motion was so violent that it was impossible to stand or to walk. One man gives it that he at- tempted to return to the house for a member of the family who was sick; he was thrown down five or six times in attempting to walk a short distance owing to these waves. The crest of the waves was elevated some three or four feet above the usual level of the earth, forming long lines running from the south- west to tlie northeast, and having depressions between tliem ; some of these waves or swells burst, forming fissures in the earth some three to seven feet in width and extending to an unknown depth. These fissures were in some cases short, but others of them extended for miles. Out of the fissures thus formed there spouted great quantities of water, sand, and a kind of charcoal or lignite. In many cases there seems to have been a sort of gas having a sulphurous smell. The banks of the rivers fell into the stream owing to their being split off by these fissures. The quantities of earth carried into the river were very great, hun- dreds of trees being swept down into the stream. The shaking of the earth and the rising and falling of these swells or waves threw down whole forests and inclined many of the trees left standing at an angle. Some of the timber was split and much of it snapped off, as told by Mrs. Bryan. In places on the side of the high bluffs faalts were formed in the earth, resulting in occasional land slides; the surface of some areas seem to have been raised, while other areas were sunk several feet below their former level. In other places small craters were opened in the earth' from which spouted quantities of sand and water, the sand being deposited on top of the alluvium forming sand blows. The river itself was greatly agitated. In many places there were falls formed in it, due to the faulting of the surface ; these falls were in places six to eight feet in height and the pour- ing of the water of the streams over them produced tremendous and unusual soiuids. In other places the bottom of the river seems to have been raised, ponding water before these places so that the level of the river was raised several feet in a very short time. The waters receded from either .shore to the center of the river and were piled up there for a time, leaving boats stranded on the bare sands. In a moment the waves returned and washed up on the shore and out into the timber, carry- ing the boats with them. Through the de- pressions formed in the banks of the river great volumes of water made their way, cov- ering parts of the country to a depth of sev- eral feet. The falUng of trees into the river and the shaking loose from the bottom of thousands of logs previously accumulated, covered its whole surface with floating tim- bers ; the waters were agitated and churned into a foam so that it was almost impossible for a boat to live upon its surface. The in- habitants of the country were of course ex- ceedingly terrified by these things and even the wild animals and fowls were thrown into confusion and uttered cries of alarm. This shaking of the earth continued at intervals for more than a year, though the last severe shock of the series was felt on the 7th of February, 1812. The shaking was felt over great re- gions, extending to the lakes on the north and to the Atlantic seaboard on the ea.st, being observed in such widely separated places as Charleston, N. C. ; Cincinnati, Ohio; Savan- nah, Ga. ; St. Louis, Mo. ; Washington, D. C, and Pittsburgh, Pa. In all these places the shocks were violent and all of them were