Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/276

 216 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI been the most common form of disturbance though there were also certain vertical mo- tions which seem, however, not to have been so destructive as the wave motion. It is plainly evident that if these accounts of the waving of the earth are accurate the shocks must have been very severe and de- structive. That such was the case is amply evidenced by the testimony of men who visited the scene shortly afterward, Flint, who saw the country within a short time after the shocks, says: "The country exhibited a melancholy aspect of chasms, of sand covering the earth, of trees thrown down, or lying at an angle of 45 degrees, or split in the middle. The earthquakes still recurred at short inter- vals, so that the people had no confidence to rebuild good houses, or chimneys of brick."* One of the remarkable things connected with the earthquakees is that notwithstanding their very great violence, few people were killed. The inhabitants were very naturally greatly alarmed and for a time refused to live within their hovises, but they finally came to pay little or no attention to them. It seems that the earthquakes killed only one person by means of falling walls. This remarkable fact, when we compare the record of this earthquake with the record of other shocks which were possibly no more severe, is due to a number of circumstances. In the first place the country was very thinly settled. Within the whole New Madrid region as we have de- fined it, there were only a few hundred per- sons living. The character of the buildings also contributed to this escape from death. There were no brick or stone buildings; most of the houses were built of logs and were only one story in height. These log houses were strongly built and at the same time were elastic and fitted to give before the shook of • Flint, Eeeolleetions of the Last Ten Years. the earthquake. Then, too, the most severe shocks came after the people had gotten out of their hoiLses. Besides the person killed by the falling of a house, one woman died from the effects of fright. She was so terrified that .she ran until she was entirely exhausted and died.! A number of men seem to have been drowned, some of whom were in boats that were overthrowTi and sunk by the violence of the waves. And there were others who were drowned, it seems, by falling into the river from caving banks. Some men were drowned by the disappearance of Island No. 94 near Vicksburg. Broadhead saj-s: "They tied up at this island on the evening of the 15th of December, 1811. In looking around they found that a party of river pirates occupied part of the island and were expecting Sarpy with the intention of robbing him. As soon as Sarpy foimd that out he quietly dropped lower down the river. In the night the earth- quake came and next morning when the ac- companying haziness disappeared, the i.sland could no longer be seen. It had been quietly destroyed, as well as its pirate inhabitants." Having given some of the general features of the earthquake, of the effect upon the peo- ple living within the district, it is now intended to give a more particular account of some of the phenomena that accompanied the .shocks. Many of the okservers speak of the darlmess that accompanied the most severe disturbances. In the account of Eliza Bryan, given herewith, she speaks of the awful dark- ness of the atmosphere ; Godfrey LeSieur says a dense black cloud of vapor overshadowed the land. At Herculaneum it is said that the "air was filled with smoke or fog so that a boat could not be seen twenty paces, nor a house fifty feet away ; the air did not clear t Flint, Recollections of the Last Ten Years, p. 223.