This notebook contains Charles Lyell's notes from 20th to 27th March 1846, while travelling on the Mississippi River, and considering local environs, particularly interested in the earthquakes at New Madrid, Missouri. The start of the notebook appears to focus on observations of local people and customs - as well as scenery, rather than geology. Notes are primarily in pencil. The index is located at the back of the notebook, is primarily in ink and is in the hand of Mary Horner Lyell.

Content warning: Lyell uses his Scientific Notebooks to gather evidence, based on both his own observation, by reviewing other people's works, by correspondence, asking questions and analyses. The language used in this index is historical, can be discriminatory and may cause offence.

Transcription note:
Dates have been inserted at the beginning of the appropriate section.

March. 1846
Index.
Note Book 138. March 20th to. 27th
p. 1 & 5 ? Judge Mayo's plantation Gryphaea Coslata Jackson. [‘5 &’ interlined at end of line]
p. 1 X Dr Gist. Zeuglodon. Pearl River.
p. 3 X In State of Mississ[ippi]. Many condemn Democracy
p. 3 X Late Spring. War. Small excitement in England
p. 5 X “Gentlemen we are a great people” Bill of fare.
p. 5 X Dirt eating young lady. Indian corn. Holly.
p. 7 Section of Eocene. Jacksons Pearl River.
p. 7 Fossil fish & Zeuglodon.
p. 9 Zeuglodon position of near Jackson.
p. 11 Eocene Section near Jackson. Loess extent of
p. 13 ? American politicians not bitter
p. 13 X Choice of Capitol. Site equally inconvenient to all.
p. 13 X Lawyer on Repudiation & Ballot Box.
p. 15 ? “Cyrus Gee your horses”
p. 15 X Tobacco chewing unwholesome Vicksburg a dunghill.
p. 15 X Nummulites trees in leaf, site of Jackson.
p. 16 X View at Vicksburg. Height of hills.
p. 16 ? Montgomery Steamer. No Negroes in cabin
p. 16 New Madrid Earthquake. Reelfoot Lake
p. 18 X Wooding station. Flowers. Drunken men. Tobacco
p. 18 X Bar at mouths of the Miss[issippi]. R[iver]. Frigates cannot get in
p. 20 X Steamer Andrew Jackson. Actress Mrs Foster. Boarding House
p. 20 X Negroes Law against free coloured men entering Miss[issippi].
p. 23 X Quadron [sic Quadroon] undistinguishable at Cincinnati banished from V[icksburg?] House
p. 23 Comparative morals of N. Orleans and England.
p. 24 X Actress. First old woman
p. 25 X Coloured woman dismissed from second table of steamer Andrew Jackson.
p. 27 X Coloured lady dined in her own state room.
p. 27 X Mrs Foster. Drunken actors. Fires at Vicksburg
p. 29 X More dialects in England than U.S. Sam Slick.
p. 29 X Mississippi banks all unsafe for towns. Bluffs valuable
p. 31 X Ice stopping up Arkansas River
p. 31 X Waste of food in U. S. Not as thrifty as Europe.
p. 31 X Memphis. Not for bar. Men of war would come here.
[p. 31] X Naval officers. Manners of - & of army
p. 33 X Women in North not restrained like Creoles. Not shy.
p. 33 X Church membership. Renouncing the world
p. 35 X Episcopalians strict, because loose in colonial times
p. 35 X Forswearing theatres after sacrament taken.
p. 35 X Islands of Miss[issippi]. Few flowers. Damp air. Fog. [? hearing] the lead.
p. 37 X Monotony of scene. Less trees. Mud. Cotton trees.
p. 37 X White river. Tame scenery. No grass under wood.
p. 37 X Literary Clerk in steamer. Macaulay.
p. 39 X Communicativeness, duck shooting. Musquitoes [sic Mosquitoes]
p. 39 X Chewing snuff. Assassinations & causes in U.S.
p. 39 X Luxury of Steam. No overworked horses.
p. 40 X Endless forest. Uniformity. Muddy River.
p. 40 X Take no servants to U.S. Well drilled slave best.
p. 40 X [long space] Annoyances to English.
[A sketch of the ‘Endless forest…’ is on p. 40; the above discussion follows on p. 43 in the notebook.]
p. 43 X Tobacco quality. Spoilt children.
p. 45 X Political nothingness help of the rich. Ostracism not bad.
p. 47 ? Travellers may soon leave much of manners nature not of fine arts.
p. 47 X Logs. Bumping. Cord of word. Wood barge towed along.
p. 49 X Hair of Negress. Husband deck. Wife cabin passenger
p. 49 X Negros treatment of improved.
p. 49 X Tameness of scenery & three growths of wood on banks.
p. 51 X Smoking in cabin. Scenery as monotonous as on Atlantic
p. 51 X New Mad Rid [sic Madrid]. Miss[issippi]. River. Few old forests.
p. 51 X Sea sickness on river in storms
p. 52 X Squall, cotton wood in leaf, stifle passenger stopped for.
p. 53 X Cheapness of steamer. Grandeur of vast river. Cold.
March 1846
p. 53 X Memphis growing fast - stage travelling upsets.
p. 53 X Migratory habits. Civilisation in backwoods.
p. 57 & 54 X Bluff at Memphis. Loess. ironpipes.
p. 54 X Sunk land. New Madrid. buffaloes near one spotted.
p. 55 X Reminiscences of N. Orleans & sail up river.
p. 55 X Authority of Captain A. Jackson's log cabin. [Lyell refers to Chickasaw history in these pages]
p. 57 ? New Madrid ravines still open. Memphis & Randolph bluffs.
p. 58 X Rents in Tenessee [sic Tennessee]. Slight shocks. Sunk land. Stumps remain.
p. 58 X Ground higher on one side of fissure. Chimneys thrown down.
p. 60 X Waste of bank. town on bank may soon be in island. Bluffs best.
p. 60 X Cincinnati steamer northern ladies reading.
p. 62 X Young lady asks, has not Mr A. committed murder.
p. 62 Law weak. relatives [? relations] avenging murder.
p. 62 X War policy of England what best against U.S.
p. 64 Most whigs now would be what democrats were before Jackson reigned.
p. 64 X New Madrid - sunk trees. Subsidence in river.
p. 64 Diving bell. Undermining of river banks.
p. 66 X New Madrid. lodging wharf boat large steamer.
p. 66 Puffing of Steamers. Negroes looking on at the dance.
p. 66 X New Madrid. Frequent shocks. Bank caving. House falling
p. 66 ? Little Prairie, most shaken in 1812. Col. Walker.
p. 68 X New Madrid. New lakes & sand bursts
p. 70 X Date of great earthquake, trees thrown over chasms
p. 70 ? Sink holes, flat boat swept up river
p. 70 Slavery. Wharf boat women not waiting on us
p. 74 X New lakes formed in 1812. Lake Eulalie Indian tradition of shock
p. 74 X Sand burst with white sand & lignite described
p. 76 X Bank at Wharf of sand. Lake St Mary
p. 78 X Great sinking at Little River. Bayou St John cracks parallel
p. 80 X Lake Eulalie dried up. fissures still open.
p. 82 X Age of trees is same & kind of different from forest
p. 84 X Sink where negro drowned. Measure depth of second sink near it
p. 86 X Cruelty to negroes. Church membership
p. 88 Lintons looked down upon for working
p. 88 Brutality to negroes in out of the way places
p. 90 Excesses in backwoods without slavery
p. 90 X Earthquake at New Madrid 1844 & 1846
p. 92 X Sand blows query if ground sunk or thrown out
p. 92 X Effects of earthquake & subsidence
p. 92 Treatment of slaves. unpunctuality of
p. 92 Wharf women in rocking chairs till slave makes your bed
p. 94 X New Madrid site of where river now flows
p. 96 X Houses moved inland. large cotton wood trees
p. 96 X Ride along. Bayou St. John birds wild scene old trees
p. 98 X “Father got groggy“ Formation of sink at Savors
p. 98 X Measured parallel fissures. Much filled up.
p. 100 X Once very deep said to [...] N[orth]. & S[outh]. New sunk land
[Note: The above index line is on p. 98.]
p. 100 X Recent shocks. Little River swamp
p. 102 X Trappers there since 1811. Bayou St John sunk ground
p. 102 X Leafless trees standing dead since 1811
p. 102 X Felt slight shock of earthquake
p. 106, 104 X Direction of parallel rents, sunk ground. old mill
p. 106 X Trees 200 years old standing dead, roots loosened
p. 108 X Examine sunk track not underwater, parallel rents dead timber.
p. 108 (& p. 3 N[umber] 139) Complaints of taxes, coming repudiation
p. 110 X Scenery, flat plain without grass. grey sky. brilliant wood pecker
p. 112 X No bright green moss. Turkey buzzard.
p. 112 Spoilt children. I’ll thump you.”
p. 112 X Little River swamp. cypress injured. Fallen trees musk rats
p. 114 X Extend of sunk land cypress killed Lake filling up
p. 114 X Deepest places may have been lakes before
p. 116 ? Number of skins & musk rats bears beavers etc
p. 116 Musk rat villages called French settlements