Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-05-28
Lake Waccamaw Correspondence.
Snakes-Larse Purchase and oE'erzsions
-Enterprise and Energy-"s snort Bra nch
hallway -shingle hzaksns-Ailig ators
Fool-Ffne ShIngies-A Wtinas Z ton
Invent on-W&ccRmaw River Fishing
tSr Sc
Mrs. BRoTHE.s' HOTEL,
tLEaIINGToN. May. 1869.

Journal When / lat addressed you,
was seated in canoe ny the creek which
empties Green Swamp into WaccamaN
Lake. In an evil nonr your correspon-
deut was placed in command OF the canoe.
and quarter of RI honr after my comrades
cried - snakes" - snnkes,' and ] found
had padded the under an overhanging
brush which was covered with g water
Dloccasins" There was great disposition
to leave the boat, but we backed out lit
tie, and taking ont our pistols, opened fire
on them. which resulted in loss of five to
the enemy, whilst we came off upinjured.
The wind having subsidized, we pulled
across the lake, five miles, to inspect the
operations of your friend, FL. B. Sh ort,
formerly President of the Green Swamp
Company, who has lately purchased thirty
thousand to forty thousand acres of land
on the South side. Let me give you de-
scription of his operations If you start
on the western end of the Lake and run a
line up to the Wilmington and Manches.
ter Railroad, thence with the railroad to
the west side of White Marsh, thence By
! the west margin of White Marsh twenty
two miles to its confluence with Waccamaw
river, thence up the river twelve miles to
the Lake. thence by the margin of the
lake to the beginning, you will have q
tolerable idea of the extent of his purchase.
The number OF acres cannot be computed.
In fact your correspondent had to wait a
little and catch breath when the bounda-
ries were mentioned. In all that vase ter
ritory the single and shook business can
be carried on most proftably. Accompanied
by the obliging superintendent, Mr.. Beers,
| we took the mario track leading into the
swamps, and went in to see the operations.
| Here are mighty cypress, the growth Of
centuries, the dimensions of which fear
to give your readers, being felled by the
laborers engaged in the single works, and
| falling las we had occasion to witness) with
a noise like mighty. thunder. Seventy five
! to eighty hands are now at work cutting
| down trees, saving, boiling and making
shingles, these are transported across the
lake to what is denominated the "Short
Branch Railw y" which connects with the
Wilmington AMI Manchester Railroad al
this place.
After one of these giants of the swamp
has been felled, the next operation is te
cut it up in lengths to suit the object fol
which it is intended. Here they are mostly
cut to twenty-fonr and thirty inch lengths
that being the length of the shingles nov
being made. This cutting is done with {
common cross cut saw, but unlike its use
in ordinary, it is only run by one hand
the handle on one end being cut or broker
off. Now it will surprise you when stats
that the hands assert that one man cal
saw faster with cross cut saw than two
and furthermore, they say that in tn
swamp frequently one man can get to
tree ard cut it where two could not worl
at all, and when a tree 'sfalls backward
or " in the soft" one can saw il and tw,
cannot. The average yield of trees bein,
cut now is about six thousand twenty-fou
inch shingles. though. many yield ten thou
sand and some even as high as thirteel
thousand each, and there are delivered OF
the other side of the lake weekly, from
eighty thousand to one hundred thousan,
shingles
A few hours before we reached th
swamp an alligator ten feet four inche
long had been killed skinned and quarter
Bed, and great pieces Of him were in tn