But great earthquakes are oftener associated with bodily movements of extensive areas of earth-crust. Thus, for example, in 1835, after a severe earthquake on the western coast of South America, it was found that the whole coast-line of Chili and Patagonia were raised from two to ten feet above sea-level. Again, in 1822, the same phenomenon was observed in the same region after a great earthquake. Again, in 1819, after a severe earthquake which shook the delta of the Indus, a tract of land fifty miles long and sixteen miles wide was raised ten feet, and an adjacent area of 2,000 square miles was sunk, and became a lagoon. In commemoration of the wonderful event the elevated tract was called "Ullah Bund," or "mound of God." Again, in 1811, a severe earthquake--perhaps the severest ever felt in the United States--shook the valley of the Mississippi. Coincidently with the shock, large areas of the river-swamp sank bodily, and have ever since been covered with water. In commemoration of the event, this area is still called the sunken country. In all these cases, probably, and in the last two certainly, there was a great fissure of the earth-crust, and a slipping of one side on the other. [14] Passing a number of descriptions of land elevations and subsidences which Sir Charles Lyell relates as occurring in Chili, in the nineteenth century, in order that I may give more attention to the lands supposed to have been occupied by the Nephites, I quote the following statement of this eminent geologist concerning the earthquake at Bogota, in 1827: On the 16th of November, 1827, the plain of Bogota, in New Granada, or Colombia, was convulsed by an earthquake, and a great number of towns were thrown down. Torrents of rain swelled the Magdalena, sweeping along vast quantities of mud and other substances, which emitted a sulphurous vapor and destroyed the fish. Popayan, which is distant two hundred geographical miles south-southwest of Bogota, suffered greatly. Wide crevices appeared in the road of Guanacas, leaving no doubt that the whole of the cordilleras sustained a powerful shock. Other fissures opened near Costa in the plains of Bogota, into which the river Tunza immediately began to flow. It is worthy of remark, that in all such cases the ancient gravel bed of a river is deserted and a new one formed at a lower level; so that a want of relation in the position of alluvial beds of the existing water-courses may be no test of the high antiquity of such deposits, at least in countries habitually convulsed by earthquakes. Extraordinary rain accompanied the shocks before mentioned; and two volcanoes are said to have been in eruption in the mountain chain nearest to Bogota. [15] The _Encyclopedia Britannica_, referring to the geographical formation of Colombia, also says: