224 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI as caused bj' the decomposition of beds of lignite near the level of the river and filled with pyrites. It is sufficient to point out in an analj'sis of these suggested causes that they are entirely inadequate to accoiuit for the violence of the shocks and especially for the wide area over which they were felt. The caving of the banks of the river, no matter how extensive, could have affected the soil for only a few feet, and no explosion of gas could have shaken the western half of the United States. In fact, no disturbance of any character what- ever, taking place within the alluvial soil, could have been eommimicated through the Appalachian mountains to the east coast. There seems to be but one alternative and that is to suppose the earthquakes to have been caused by a movement not in the alluvial soil but in the underlying rocks, which extend not only imder the alluvium but also throughout the eastern half of the coiuitrj'. Faulting or other disturbances in these underlying rocks, no matter where originating, might have been communicated to any part of the country. Such movement seems on tlie w'hole to be the most probable origin of these tremendous dis- turbances. There follow the accounts of a number of persons who witnessed the scenes of the earth- quakes or studied them shortly afterward. They are given in order to preserve as many as possible of the facts of that time. The first of these is a letter written in 1816 by Mrs. Eliza Bryan, who at the time of the shock was at New Madrid. New Madrid, Territory of Missouri, March 22, 1816. On the 16th of December, 1811. about 2 o'clock a. m., we were visited bv a violent shock of an earthciuake, accompanied by a very awful noise resembling loud, distant thunder, but more hoarse and vibrating, which was followed in a few minutes by a complete saturation of the atmosphere with sulphurous vapor, causing total darkness. The screams of the affrighted inhabitants running to and fro, not knowing where to go or what to do ; the cries of the fowls and beasts of every species; the cracking of trees falling, and the roaring of the Mississippi, the current of which retrograded for a few min- utes, owing as is supposed to an eruption in its bed, all formed a scene truly horrible. From that time until nearly simrise a number of lighter shocks occurred, at which time one still more violent than the first took place, with the same accompaniments as the first, and the terror which had been excited in everyone, and indeed in all animal nature, was now, if possible, doubled. The inhabitants tied in every direction to the country, suppos- ing that there was less danger at a distance from than near the river. There were several shocks of a day, but lighter than those mentioned, until the 23d of Januaiy, 1812, when one occurred as vio- lent as the severest one of the former ones, accompanied by the same phenomena as the former. From this time until the 4th of February the earth was in continual agitation, visibly waving as a gentle sea. On that day there was another shock nearly as hard as the preceding ones. Next day four shocks, and on the 7th about 4 o'clock a. m., a concussion took place so much more violent than those which had preceded it that it was denominated the hard .shock. The awful darkness of the atmosphere, which was as formerly saturated with sulphurous vapor, and the violence of the tempestuous thundering noise that accom- panied it. together with all the otlier phenom-
