The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-09-20
The Dismal Swamp.

The region of the Dismal Swamp,
says j. Boyle O'Reilly in the Boston
Herald, was intended by nature to be
pleasure ground, health resort and
game preserve for the eastern side of
the continent. In spite of all that has
been done and left undone to destroy
it, the swamp itself is probably the
healthiest spot in America Its de-
Icious juniper water prevents malaria
more effectually than the far-famed
eucalyptus of Australia The flying
game of the country centers in this
region, and the lake in winter is the
best shooting ground in the country.
Now that wealthy clubs and individ-
uals are buying up the coast shooting,
this incomparable natural reserve ought
to be secured for the nation or the
state.
It's original undoing was probably
some accident or catac1ysm of nature,
changing a watercourse or opening
a crater-lke spring or number of
springs. But the remedy from the
first was as easy and open to intelli-
gence as the tapping of vein to pre-
vent plethora. The lake, it is proba-
BILE, was the center and the cause of
the swamp. and is proved by the
streams flowing out of instead of into
it. Its OVERLOOKING waters. when
swelled by rains OF springs, finding no
natural channel to escape, rose foot by
foot to the very lip of the cup, cover
ing the beach and threatening the
densely wooded shore.
In this way has been brought the
singular conditions of the lake, which,
instead of being the lowest, is the
highest portion of the Dismal Swamp.
1t could be pierced and drained at any
point and reduced to natural and
brilliant proportions. Its overflow, in
stead of constantly deluging the sur
rounding land. could be guided in ten
thousand sparkling channels to enrich
and adorn its wonderful environment.
The lake of the Dismal Swamp is, by
survey, about twenty-three feet higher
than the sea, and it is not fifteen miles
from tidewater, the intervening land
being a level slope, and except for the
trees exceedingly easy to channel.
And, stranger still, the channels have
been dug for over hundred years, but
they are locked up at the outer ends
with wooden gates.
Ponder on this marvellous fact: The
lake of the Dismal Swamp, three miles
by two and half in extent, and from
seven to fifteen feet in depth, is stu
ated on the side and almost on the top
of hill, and yet it creates by overflow
all around it for about LOCO square
miles one of the densest and darkest
morasses on the surface of the earth.
In 1868 George Washington surveyed
the Dismal Swamp and discovered that
the western side was much higher than
the eastern. and that the rivers ran out
of the swamp and not into it. He then
wrote that the swamp was ''neither a
plain nor hollow, but a hillside" A
member of the National Geological
Survey entered the Dismal Swamp,
proceeded westward from the Dismal
Swamp, came toward the lake and
found that the rise in the land was five
and one-half feet in seven miles. We
met this gentleman, Mr.. Atkinson,
within the bounds of the swamp, and
on hearing his statement asked him,
Gould the lake be lowered and the
swamp drained with such an incline?"
Certainly" he said. 1T is very de-
cided watershed. An opening from
the lake to the tide, on the Elizabeth
river on the one side and the Pasquo-
tank on the other, would have fall of
twenty-five and six-tenths feet in
distance of less than fifteen miles"