The Charlotte Democrat., 1888-10-19
Down in the Dismal Swamp,
a Canal made By accident and Lake

h OOftut Htuuc w uCCeucfss UksU u A<JkG
made 6y flash of Lightning.
Half a century ago the Dismal Swamp
Canal in Virginia was one of the most i'm
portsnt artificial waterways 10 the United
States. In these days OF rapid railroad
transportation, however, and owing TO the
competition OF the Albemarie and Chesa-
peake Canal, which parallels it, it has
dropped somewhat out Of sight, though il
is still considerably patronized. Il is one
of the oldest canals 10 the country, and it's
management is probably the oldest incor.
porated company of it's kind. George
Washington was probably connected with
it, and he found it very available means
OF obtaining supplies when he was con.
tending with Lord CORVALLIS at York
town. There was no Eastern Virginian
of prominence and wealth until the begin.
ming OF the century to the beginning of
the late war who was not in some way or
another identified with it.
Mr. Marshall Parks, the Supervising In
spector-General of Steamboats,, whose early
days were passed in canal construction in
Virginia, tells an interesting aud remark
ab.s coincidental story of the building of
he canal. Nearly two centuries ago the
large land owners of Virginia began to
penetrate the dark and gloomy wilds of
| the Dismal Swamp in search Of juniper
| aud cypress shingles. The greatest diff
Guilty with which they had to contend,
however, was the soggy condition of the
soil, in which the wheels of their carts
sank TO the hubs. The further they pene-
trated the swamps this difficulty became
greater, aud at last they resorted to the
expedient of digging narrow and ILL
shapen ditch just deep enough to float q
small fat boat. Down this canal the tim
bsr was hoated to Deep Greek, tributa-
ry of the Elizabeth River, and thence to
the market at Norfolk. Year by year the
timber was cut away along the banks of
the ditch, and each year, as the demand
for juniper and cypress shingles became
greater, it was extended further into the
almost impenetrable wilds of the forest.
The work was done altogether by slaves,
with shovels and pickaxes. The use of
steam shovels was then unknown and un-
thought of. The towering cypress trees
were also felled and split into shingles by
slaves. who were given tasks each day by
their overseers, aud for all shingles they
made over the required amount they were
paid extra. One Sunday afternoon they
were visited by their overseer, who was
much surprised to hear several negroes
| singing away off in the swamp. Their
voices sounded like faint echoes. He
asked the slaves who lived constantly in
the swamp if they knew the men who
were singing, aud was told that they we're
North Carolina negroes. An investiga-
tion OF their unexpected aud rather in
truding presence was made, and the fact
was discovered that the North Carolina
landowners, like those of Virginia, about
twenty miles away, had experienced the
same difficulties of hauling lumber in the
soggy and treacherous swamp, and had
sent their slaves into the wilds to dig a
ditch to aid them in their transportation
of shingles and lumber.
For years these two forces worked in.
dependently of each other, and each,
strange to say, was digging unawares to-
| ward the other. The two sections of the
canal were joined, and the point of con-
nection is marked by an angle.
The Government and the State of Vir-
ginia finally became interested in the
work, and the waters of Lake Drummond
were brought into requisition for feeding
the canal. This lake is situated In the
centre of the swamp, and the depression
in which the placid water sparkles was
made by fire centuries, perhaps, thou
sands OF years, ago. The whole swamp,
in fact, represents in modern age the
| coalforming epochs of millions of years
back in the geological history of the globe,
and during an exceedingly dry season
so dry, indeed, that the boggy soil was
parched and transformed into an infam.
mable clay, fash of lightning became
the origin of big fire. Towering trees
were felled, the scrubby underbrush was
laid low, and then the flames ate their way,
foot after foot, into the infammable soil,
aud hollow circle was formed in the
ground. When the rains came this de-
preston became basin for the innumera'
BILE streams which trickled through the
forest, and was soon transformed into a
lake
The almost trackless swamp through
which the canal penetrates is still valua
BILE on account of its cypress and juniper
the latter article becoming year by year
more and more scarce and exceedingly
valuable. At one time a single share oi
stock of the Dismal Swamp Land Compa
lny was worth as much as $4,000. The
tract originally taken up aud survey &c
embraces 10000 square acres. Abou
half as many additional square acres ART
now embraced in the forest. Bears wan
der unmolested in its trackless depths
and the deadly rattler bssks himself in th'
sun without fear of man. Birds of bril-
liant plumage fly from limb to limb o
the huge and high cypress trees, and sinl
their carols from dawn to dark unseen
visible today in the course of the canal
Bdltina ore San.
az When the Emperor William rs
piled to the toast of the Emperor FraIci
L l. L. L.. Ioal:1-- Il