HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 215 noted as occurring about the same time as the shocks at New iladrid. The shocks seemed to travel from the south- west to the northeast, and a study of all the recorded evidence indicates that the center of the disturbance was within the alluvial re- gion. It is the opinion of Mr. Puller, who has made a careful study of the situation, that the line marking the center of disturbance extended from a point in New Madrid county just east of Parma, in a southwesterly direc- tion, crossing the sand ridge just east of Ken- nett, and ending south of St. Prancis lake in Arkansas.* The area affected, as we have said, was very large, including perhaps the east half of the United States. The smaller area in which there was an unusual earth disturbance char- acterized by sunken lands, fissures, sinks, sand-blows, etc., includes the New Mad- rid region as it is called, which extends from a point west of Cairo on the north to the lati- tude of Memphis on the south, a distance of more than 100 miles, and from Crowley's ridge on the west to the Chickasaw bluffs on the east, a distance of over 50 miles, the total area affected in this striking way being from 30,000 to 50,000 square miles. ~ It is not possible to give the number of shocks that were felt, bwt there were probably at least a hundred that could be detected without the use of instruments, a number of them being severe. Attempts have been made to determine the exact character of the disturbances that took place in the surface of the earth. Here de- pendence must be put upon the observations within the area of the great disturbances. It is difficult to reconcile the opinions of the different observers on this particular point differences arising, doubtless, from the diffi-
- U. S. Geological Survey, Bulletin 494. Plate 1.
culty experienced during the earthquake in observing and recording the facts as they actually existed; the feeling of terror was so great that it was almost a matter of impossi- bility to make accurate and exact observa- tions. The disturbances of the crust is .said by Bringier to have been like the blowing up of the earth accompanied by loud explosions.** Casseday says : "It seems as if the .surface of the earth was afloat and set in motion by a slight application of immense power and when this regular motion is moved by a sudden cross .shove all order is destroyed and a boiling action is produced, during the continuance of which the degree of violence is greatest and the scene most dreadful.*** Plint was told by other witnesses that the movement was an undulation of the earth resembling waves, increasing in elevation as they advanced, and when they had attained a certain fearful height the earth would burst, t This agrees with LeSieur's account also, and Haywood writes that the motions were undulating, the agitating surface quivering like the flesh of beef just killed, and the mo- tion progressed from west to east and was sometimes perpendicular, resembling a house rising and suddenly let fall to the ground.J Audubon, describing his experiences in Kentucky, says that the ground rose and fell in successive furrows like the ruffled waters of a lake ; the earth moved like a field of corn before the breeze. Tj This wave motion of the crust seems to have
- Bringier, American Jour, of Science, 1st se-
ries. Vol. Ill (1821), p. 1546.
- Casseday, History of Louisville, p. 122.
+ Timothy Flint, Recollections of the Last Ten Years, p. 223. X Haywood, Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, p. 124. H Audubon, J. J., .Journal, Vol. II, p. 234.
