So tremendous were those explosions, that when happening under large trees, the tenacity of their texture yielded at once to their force; and the largest in the forest were split and fractured from root to top. During these convulsions, the ground on which the town of New-Madrid is situated, together with the country for several miles round, sunk about five feet below its former elevation; in which situation it has remained. Eight years afterwards the writer was again on the same spot. The desolate aspect, which the country presented at the time he witnessed those scenes, was measurably obliterated: but the banks of the river were still in their sunken situation. How could all those violent convulsions take place at this point, and not be felt at New-Orleans, along the sea coast of the United States, and other places? Whence came this water and air, which issued from those apertures in the earth? And why did the river for a few minutes flow in a contrary direction, and then resume its natural course? If the earth be a compact and solid globe, I can account for none of these things; but admitting the formation of the sphere to be such as I contend for, they are all resolved into the most simple principles; and what would otherwise be impenetrable mystery, is made as plain as noon-day. If the sphere be formed as I allege, those concussions were doubtless occasioned by the gas or fluid in the _mid-plane_ or some intermediate space, near the surface, which, by being suddenly rarified, would make it expand, and cause the upper part of the sphere to be suddenly elevated in the neighbourhood of the Little Prairie; and hence the waters of the river, pursuing the laws of gravity, would flow in a contrary direction. This sudden expansion, and elevation of the surface, would cause apertures, through which the rare gas would escape, and the surface would then settle down again, not only to its former level, but, as a considerable portion of this gas had escaped, the remaining part would occupy less space; hence the surface of the country, around New-Madrid, would be below its former situation.[31]