The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-11-30
WORKING A CEDAR MINE.
RECOVERING SUBMERGED TREES
FROM a NEW JERSEY SWAMP.

RECOVERING SUBMERGED TREES
FROM a NEW JERSEY SWAMP.
"A Forest of Big Cedars That Fell
Ages Ago-NIethods of Their Re.
covery-Their Uses.
A Dennisville IN. j. letter to the New
York Sun says: The fallen and sub
merged cedar forests of this part of New
Jersey, which were disco cred first be-
meath the Dennisville swamps seventy
five years g still afford employment to
scores of people in their excavation, and
are a source Of constant interest to geol-
.ogists. There are standing at the present
day no such immense specimens of tho
cedar anywhere in the country as are
found embedded deep in tho muck of
the Dennisville swamps. Some of tho
trees that have been uncovered are six
feet in diameter. and trees four feet
through are m
Although ages must have passed
since these great forests fell and be-
came covered many feet beneath the
surface, such trees as fell, &C.
"cording to the general theory, while yet
living trees, are as sound to-day as they
were the day they were uprooted. These
trees are called windfalls, as it is thought
they were torn up by the roots during
some terrible gale of an unknown past.
Others are found in the muck which are
called ,break-downs, as they we're evil
IDENTITY dead trees when they fell, and
have been held by the action of the mud
and water in the swamp in the SAM
stage Of decay they were ir WIZ. uney
fell. '...
The cedar forests, it is thought, grew
in a fresh-water lake or swamp, the
action of which was neccs sary to their
existence. According to Mr.. Clarence
,Demlng and DIR. Maurice Bcasely,
eminent geological authorities of south
ern New Jersey, the SCI either broke in
on the swamps or the land subsidized,
and the salt water reacted the trees.
This destroyed the life of many of th.m.
and in time the great windfall came and
aeve cd the forest. The trees now lie
beneath the soft soil at various depths,
and ever since 1912 the logs have been
mined and are ar Important factor in the
local commercial interests of South Jer-
sey. The cedars are cut up into shingles
aud slaves, and the longevity of article:
made from the wooii is shown in shingles.
tubs, and pals which were made over
seventy years ago, and which show nc
signs of decay yet.
The working of a "cedar mine" is OK.
'ceedingly simple. The log digger en-
tiers the swamp and prods in the soft sol.
with q long. sharp iron rod. The trees
lie so thickly beneath the surface that
the rod cannot be pushed far into the
muck before it strikes n log. That done,
the miner soon informs himself rs to the
length of the trunk, and then chips of
a piece which his rod brings up. BY
tho smell of this chip the logger can tell
whether he has struck n breakdown or
a windfall, and, if it il the latter, he
proceeds at once to raise the log. He
works a saw similar to those used by ice
cutters, down through the mud and saws
the log in two as near the roots as neces.
:sary. The top is next sawed of, and
then the big cedar stick is ready to be
released from its resting plac'. A ditch
is dug down to the log, the trunk is
aoosened, and it rises up with the water
to the surface of the ditch. A curious
thing isynoticed about these, logs when
they come 10 the surface, and that is
that they invariably turn over with their
bottom sides up. The log is sawed into
proper lengths for shingles or slaves,
which are spit and worked into shape
entirely by hand. These cedar shingles
command a price, much higher than pine
or chestnut shingles.
These ancient cedars arc of the white
variety, and have the same strong. aro-
matte fragrance when cut that the com.
mon red cedar has. The wood is of q
delicate flesh color. One of the mysteries
IS that none of the trees is ever found to
be water-logged in the slightest degree.
1t Is impossible to tell how many LAYERS
deep these cedars lie in tho swamp, but
1t ID certain thai there are several LAYERS, |
and That with all the work that has been
done IN the swamp for seventy years the |
some places in the marsh the soil has |
sunk for several feet and become dry.
and there the fallen ccdars may b, seen
lying n On top of another in great
heaps, No tree has been removed from
the Dennisville swamp from q greater
depth than three feet, but they have
been found at a greater depth outside
the limits of the swamp. showing not
only the correctness Of the decp-layer
theory, but the great extent of the ancient
forest outside of the swamp arear Near
the shores OF the Delaware, nearly eight
miles from Dcnnisville, white cedar loes
have been exhumed from a depth Of
Twelve feet. At Cape May, twenty miles
distant, drillers of an artesian we'll struck
one of the trees when the drill was almost
ninety feet in|the earth. it was lying in
alluvial deposit similar to the Dennis
vile marsh. Another log was found at
Cape May twenty feet below the sur
lace, and a third at a depth of seventy
feet. These logs were all of enormous
81 Q. What it Is in the am~ber-colored
swamp water aud red muck at Dennis.
Vile that preserves thes, trees go that
after a lapse of centuries their fiber ia "a
and smooth as it was when the