James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 4

by Edwin James; Stephen H. Long; Thomas Say

Two or three weeks elapsed previous to Major Long's return from St. Louis; when, notwithstanding his ill health, he left Cape Girardeau immediately, as {184} did Captain Bell, both intending to prosecute, without delay, their journey to the seat of government.

About the 1st of November, Messrs. Say, Graham, and Seymour had so far recovered their health, as to venture on undertaking a voyage to New Orleans on their way home. They left Cape Girardeau in a small boat, which they exchanged at the mouth of the Ohio for a steam-boat about to descend the Mississippi. Mr. Peale, who had escaped the prevailing sickness, accompanied them, leaving only Dr. James and Lieut. Swift with the steam-boat Western Engineer at Cape Girardeau. Lieut. Swift had received instructions, as soon as the water should rise sufficiently, to proceed with the boat to the Falls of Ohio, where it was to remain during the winter.

Early in November, the frosts had been so severe at Cape Girardeau, that the leaves were fallen, and the country had assumed the aspect of winter. On the 9th, at four P.M. the shock of an earthquake was felt. The agitation was such as to cause considerable motion in the furniture and other loose articles in the room where we were sitting. Before we had time to collect our thoughts and run out of the house, it had ceased entirely; we had therefore no opportunity to form an opinion of its direction. Several others occurred in the time of our stay at the Cape, but they all happened at night, and were all of short duration. "Shakes," as these concussions are called by the inhabitants, are in this part of the country extremely frequent, and are spoken of as matters of every day occurrence.[74] Several houses in and about Cape Girardeau have formerly been shaken down, forests have been overthrown,[75] and other considerable changes produced by their {185} agency. Their effect upon the constantly varying channels and bars in the bed of the Mississippi must doubtless be very important.

These concussions are felt through a great extent of country, from the settlements on Red river and the Washita to the falls of Ohio, and from the mouth of the Missouri to New Orleans. Their great extent, and the very considerable degree of violence with which they affect not only a large portion of the valley of the Mississippi, but of the adjacent hilly and mountainous country, appear to us most clearly to indicate that they are produced by causes far more efficient and deep-seated than "the decomposition of beds of lignite or wood-coal situated near the level of the river, and filled with pyrites," according to the suggestion of Mr. Nuttall.[76] It has been repeatedly asserted, that volcanic appearances exist in the mountainous country between Cape Girardeau and the hot springs of the Washita, particularly at the latter place; but our observation has not tended to confirm these accounts; and Hunter and Dunbar, who spent some time at the hot springs, confidently deny the existence of any such appearances in that quarter. Reports have been often circulated, principally on the authority of hunters, of explosions, subterraneous fires, blowings and bellowings of the mountains, and many other singular phenomena, said to exist on the Little Missouri of Washita, and other parts of the region of the hot springs; but it is easy to see that the combustion of a coal-bed, or some other affair of equal insignificance, may have afforded all the foundation on which these reports ever rested. But though no traces of existing or of extinct volcanoes should be found in any part of the country affected by these earthquakes, it is not therefore necessary to go in search of some cause unlike those which in {186} other parts of the earth are believed to produce similar effects.

On the morning following the earthquake above mentioned, a fall of snow commenced, and continued during the day; towards evening it fell mixed with hail and rain, and covered the ground to the depth of about six inches.

The rain continued for some days, the mercury ranging from 40° to 48° and 50°, a temperature and state of weather as little grateful to an ague-shaken invalid as any weather can be. The snow which fell on the 10th remained on the ground until the 15th, when it had nearly disappeared, and a succession of bright days followed. The air was now filled with countless flocks of geese, sandhill cranes, and other migratory birds on their passage to the south. The migrations of the ardea canadensis afford one of the most beautiful instances of animal motion we can any where meet with. These birds fly at a great height, and never in a direct line, but wheeling in circles, they appear to float without effort on the surface of an aerial current, by whose eddies they are borne about in an endless series of revolutions. Though larger than a goose, they rise to so great an elevation as to appear like points, sometimes luminous, and sometimes opaque, as they happen to intercept or reflect the rays of the sun; but never so high but their shrill and incessant clamours may be heard.

While at Cape Girardeau we were induced, from motives of curiosity, to attend at the performance of some ceremonies by the negroes, over the grave of one of their friends, who had been buried a month since. They were assembled round the grave, where several hymns were sung. An exhortation was pronounced by one, who officiated as minister of the gospel, who also made a prayer for the welfare of the soul of the deceased. This ceremony, we are told, is common among the negroes in many parts of the {187} United States: the dead are buried privately, and with few marks of attention; a month afterwards the friends assemble at the grave, where they indulge their grief, and signify their sorrow for the deceased, by the performance of numerous religious rites.

On the 22d of November, having been informed the Ohio had risen several inches, Lieut. Swift determined to leave Cape Girardeau with the steam-boat on the following day. Dr. James had so far recovered as to be able to travel on horseback; and immediately set forward on the journey to the Falls of Ohio, intending to proceed by the nearest route across the interior of Illinois.

The immediate valley of the Mississippi, opposite the little village of Bainbridge, ten miles above Cape Girardeau, is four miles wide, and exclusive of the river, which washes the bluffs along the western side. Upwards, it expands into the broad fertile and anciently populous valley, called the American bottom; on the east, it is bounded by abrupt hills of a deep argillaceous loam, disclosing no rocks, and rather infertile, bearing forests of oak, sweet gum, tupelo, &c. The road crossing the hilly country between the Mississippi and the village of Golconda on the Ohio passes several precocious little towns, which appear, as is often the case in a recently settled country, to have outgrown their permanent resources. The lands, however, are not entirely worthless; and on some of the upper branches of the Cache, a river of the Ohio, we passed some fertile bottoms, though they are not entirely exempt from inundation at the periodical floods. The compact limestone about Golconda, near the sources of Grand Pierre creek, and near Covedown rock, contains beautiful crystals of Derbyshire spar; sulphuret of lead also occurs in that vicinity, as we have been informed, in veins accompanying the fluate of lime.[77]