A section of country bordering on the Mississippi, near New Madrid, where earthquakes, a hundred years ago, left large fissures.
1812. These earthquakes, which occurred in Dec. 1811, are graphically described in Pierce’s ‘Account,’ Newburyport, 1812.—(Brit. Mus. 7109b. 43.)
[1823. “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.—E. James, ‘Rocky Mountain Expedition,’ ii. 325.]
1833. Rees and a friend of his come over to my house one evening, and asked me if I did n’t want to go down to the Shakes and take a bear hunt. I told ’em I did n’t care much about it; but if they wanted to go, I’d go with ’em: so next morning we fixed up, got our pack horses, and off we started for the Shakes. We pitched our tent right on the bank of one of those lakes made by the Shakes, and commenced hunting.—‘Sketches of D. Crockett,’ p. 108. See also pp. 65, 81.
*** The catastrophe at New Madrid is described by J. K. Paulding in ‘The Banks of the Ohio,’ i. 223–30 (1833).
