The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1879-08-14
Tho Dismal Swamp.

This swamp covers an area about thirty
miles square, and is penetrated only by the
canal, which runs to a remarkable fresh
water lake, as cold rs ice in midsummer,
that is called "Lakc Drummond," from the
man that discovered it more than hundred
years ago. The lake is fed by springs at
its bottom, and is very deep, but has no
natural outlet, Its surplus of water being
absorbed, it is supposed, by the spongy
moses that form its banks. Years and
years ago there used to be a handsome
hotel here, which was visited in the summer
time by people from Norfolk and the sur
rounding country, and from its inaccessi-
bility, the boats running at long intervals,
it became the "Grctna Green" of the re-
gion, and the young fellows of the revolu-
tionary period used to bring their stolen
brides and spend their honeymoons among
the odors from the cedar and the cypress.
Rare old Tom Moore visited the Dismal
Swamp, and stopped at the tavern during
his tour in America, in 1904, and wrote a
quaint song about young man whose
sweet heart was stolen from him by death,
and who, so the legend goes, crazcd by his
atiliction, imagined the girl had bceu taken
to the Dismal Swamp. He followed her
there, and was never heard from afterward,
1t being supposed that he starved to death
in the wilderness.
Some people say that in the center of the
swamp there are living a naked, semi-civil-
lied colony of negroes who escaped from
plantations in slave times, and who have
become injured to the attacks of the in
sccts, 1t is said that they live on fish, and
grow little corn; but no one was ever
there to see this colony, nor can l find q
truth-tclling citizen who knows the source
of this story. There is legend to the ef-
feet that three or four years ago, man
from this colony made his way out, and as
tonishcd people by never having heard of
the war, but cnn find no one to Youch for
It's accuracy.
The cedar, which is the prevailing timber
in the swamp, is the finest in the world,
and ship-loads Of 1t, almost daily, are sent
across the sea. There are several mills on
the canal, and the business is rapidly in
creasing. The canal was commenced in
1877, and was surveyed by Washington,
but was not completed until 1880. 1t is
owned by bankrupt corporation, the gov
crnmcnt holding considerable stock in it,
and several times the Secretary of tho
Treasury has directed its sale at auction, but
injunctions, and other methods known to
the law, have prevented it, and now a bill is
pending in Congress providing for the pur-
chase of. the whole affair by the govern
mcnt. 1t isn't bad plan, for there is no
finer timber anywhere, and the supply Is
almost incXlaustablc. The great part is
cedar, but there arc pine, cypress, juniper,
and other trees, which will be all turned in
to lumber some time, but there Is enough
to last many generations. This timber was
famous 200 years ago. In 1928 the Cover
nor Of Virginia wrote to tho mother govern
mcnt: "They have a pretty deal of lumber
here, got from the bordcrcrs of the Dismal
who make bold with tho Kings trees there
about without ceremony. The swamp will
probably never be drained. The soil Is full
of subterraneous springs, and can be pcnc-
tratcd by n rod as far as one has disposi-
tion to thrust it down. The only way that
timber and shingles can bc brought to the
canal is by laying down pontoons on tho
spongy mass. The growth OF vegetation is
luxurious, and 1t Is a very jungle of reeds
and scmi-tropical plants.
TnE SYSTEM is often 80 rapidly reduced by a
soVore attack OF DiarrnGa, or other Affection
reach OF medicine, before the patient can realize
tho neces slty OF looking about him for remedy.
Better koep by you DR.. Jayne's Carminative
BalSanl, a Safo curative for ksiati0 SyhOlera