Martinsburgh Gazette

EARTHQUAKES.

The papers from all quarters contain accounts of Earthquakes. A Nashville (Ten.) paper, of the 7th January, says, about Fifty shocks have been felt in that place since the 16th of December!

ALBANY, (N. Y.) Jan. 6.

Messrs. Miner & Butler,

A very singular Phenomenon took place near Angelica, in the county of Allegany, on Monday morning the 16th of Dec. which I will state, as related to me by one of the eye witnesses. Early in the morning about sunrise, as sitting at breakfast, he had a strange feeling, and supposed at first he was fainting, but as his sight did not fail, he then concluded that he was going into a fit, and moved his chair back from the table.—He then had a sensation as though the house was swinging, and observed that clothes hanging on lines in the room were swinging, as also a large kettle hanging over the fire. He observed that his wife and family appeared to be greatly alarmed, and still supposing that it was in consequence of his apparently falling into a fit, but on inquiry found that all felt the same sensation. This continued as he supposed, for at least 15 minutes. There was no noise or trembling, nor any wind, but only an appearance of swinging or rocking as he supposed, equal to the house rocking two feet one way and the other. One of his neighbors felt the same, and on the opposite side of the river at the farm house and dwelling house of Philip Church, the same motions and sensations were felt. Mrs. Church was in bed, and when she first felt the motion and a strange sensation as if suffocating, she jumped out of bed supposing that the house was on fire. The motion was so considerable as to set all the bells in the several rooms a ringing, and an inside door was observed to swing open and shut.

The same motions were felt up the river about eight miles above, at a house near a small brook; the people run out of the house and observed the water to have the same motion. Accounts state, that the same motions have been felt at sundry other places 30 miles distant.

I could relate many other similar motions felt and perceived at the same time, but leave it for the present. How to account for it I know not. If you think it worthy of notice you may make it public, and if the same or similar motions have been felt at other places, doubtless it will be communicated. I should like to hear it accounted for on rational principles.

CHRISTOPHER HURLBUT.

The following is an extract of a letter from a gentleman in Massachusetts, to his brother in Maryland.
"Fort Massac, Dec. 17. 1811."

"I did not intend writing you this week, but a late dreadful phenomenon which happened, and still continues to alarm the inhabitants in this neighbourhood, will probably excite your anxiety as to my safety. You will no doubt, before this is received, have heard of the Earthquake experienced in this quarter: and as stories of that kind swell on their travels, a particular sketch of this may not be unwelcome to you. At 2 o'clock yesterday morning, I was awakened by an intolerable rattling and shaking of the house in which I live (40 feet by 30) which at first impressed me with the idea of fire. On reaching the gallery, I immediately discovered the cause of my alarm; the shock continued about five minutes, the upper story (in which I sleep) was so agitated as to threaten the whole fabric with ruin. However, the only damage it sustained is the loss of two brick chimneys which pierced the roof; they were broken off six feet from the top, this was the case with four out of five in the garrison. It has returned after short intervals ever since, until 6 o'clock this morning: at 12 it was again felt, but so slightly that the alarm of the inhabitants begins to wear off. So far as I have heard from the country in every direction, (say 20 miles) the effects of this convulsion have been the same."

"7 P. M.-- The Post rider has just arrived from Louisiana, 30 miles distant, the damage has been still greater."

Raleigh, (N. C) Jan. 24.

The Earthquake.--A letter has been received in this city, from a gentleman of the first respectability in Tennessee, which states that the Earthquake, so generally felt on the 16th of December, was so violent in the vicinity of his residence that several chimneys were thrown down: and that eighteen or twenty acres of land on Piney river, had suddenly sunk so low, that the tops of the trees were on a level with the surrounding earth. Four other shocks were experienced on the 17th, and one or more continued to occur every day to the 30th ult. the date of the letter.

A slight shock of an Earthquake was felt in this city about eight o'clock yesterday morning. It continued only a few seconds.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Jan. 25.

ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE.

Last Thursday morning, about 9 o'clock, a tremor of the earth was perceived in this place, and at Wheeling. Its duration was about a minute. During the motion, water was observed to undulate from south to north. The river, at Wheeling, has been frozen over for several days past. At the time above mentioned, a gentleman who was on the bank of the river, heard the ice cracking in such a manner as to impress the idea that the ice was breaking up, until he felt the ground moving under him.

EARTHQUAKE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

We have been several times asked whether the papers contained any thing about New Orleans having been sunk at the time of the earthquake in December. No particular statement of the effects of the earthquake, on land, in that quarter, have yet reached us. The following account of its effects on the Mississippi river, is given in a Cincinnati paper of the 15th inst.---

An interesting letter from a gentleman of respectability, dated at Chickasaw Bluffs, December 21, states that the first shock of Earthquake occurred at 30 minutes past 2 o'clock in the morning of the 16th, the same time that it seems to have been felt in the Atlantic states and in this country. That shock was followed during the sixteenth and the following night by nineteen others; and the 17th there were three, and the following night several others; on the 18th there were several shocks; on the 19th there were 5 shocks and several through the succeeding night, on the 20th there were 3 and on the 21st, when the letter was written, the earth was trembling.---

The first and second vibrations, and that between 11 and 12 o'clock on the 17th, were the most violent.

The effects of these shocks appear to have been of the most alarming kind. The barge commanded by the author of the letter was anchored in 2 1/2 fathoms water, about 17 miles below New Madrid or 87 below the mouth of the Ohio. The vessel was acted on by the water, in a manner that excited a supposition of her being grounded, not upon sounding they could find no bottom. The current increased to three times the velocity it had the preceding evening; the crew of a boat at the shore testified that the river rose six feet in a short time; and that no spot of the land was to be found that was not (as they expressed it) "giving." Two flat bottomed boats that were lying at the shore, were destroyed. One was broken entirely to pieces, and the other overturned-the crew saved themselves:

At the second shock, millions of trees that were imbedded in the mud in the bottom of the river, suddenly had one end elevated to the surface, rendering the river almost impassable. At the same time the banks were shook into the river in large masses. Upon passing the Little Prairie the inhabitants were found to have all fled to the high land. It was stated by some hunters near the Bayou river, that the ground was cracked into innumerable fissures, and a large island above the mouth of the Bayou river, was extremely agitated, and seemed to require but little to sink it. The lakes which lie in the valley of the Mississippi were discharging large quantities of water into that river, and the fowls of that region were observed throughout the whole of the 16th to keep constantly on the wing.

The writer of the letter had not heard from any place farther down the river than the Chickasaw Bluffs, about 176 miles below the mouth of the Ohio, but his letter closes with an expression of the deepest anxiety respecting the country nearer the gulph.

We are, However, credibly informed that a letter has been received from New Orleans, dated the 20th of December, which is entirely silent as to the earthquake.

[ The date of this letter shews that the fears of those who apprehended the destruction of N. Orleans, went too far.]