Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1892-03-03
THE DISMAL SWAMP.
It's SOLITARY Regions a Paradise
for Hunters.
sihv cs Formerly Found Safe Refuge in Its
Dark and Lonely Precincts Which
Their Hunters We're Unable
to Penetrate.

II IL were not Tor the almost impen-
ietrable thickets of the trackless woods.
the Dismal swamp of Virginia would
offer the greatest attractions imagina-
bic for the sportsman. The swamp
proper consists of about one hundred
and twenty thousand acres of low
swamp land, through which the bears
and deer wander unmolested, birds of
beautiful plumage fly from limb to
limb of the huge cypress trees, and
deadly rattlesnalies bask in the sun
light without fear of man. The track
less swamp abounds in cypress and
juniper trees, both of which are be.
coming year by year more Scarce and
consequently exceedingly valuable,
In the very cepter CT the Dismal
swamp Lake DrTimm ind is situated,
and more lon ely, solitary sheet of
water one would have ~ explore the
wilds of Africa to ipd. The depres-
sion in which the placid water sparlles
is supposed to kave been made by a
flash OF lightning thousands Of years
ago. III whole swamp, in fact, rep
resents In q modern age the coal form
ing ef ,cchs of unknown years back in
the history of the globe, and in an ex-
Gee ding dry season, when the Doggy
So i'll was parched and transformed into
an infiammable clay, n flash of light
ming became the origin of a big fire.
Towering trees were burned to the
aground, and the flames eventually ate
their way far into the inflammable soil
until an enormous hollow circle was
formed in the ground. Innumerable
streams trickle through the low swamp,
and when the rains overfowed their
banks they ran into this basin, forming
Lake Drummond Such, at least, is the
theory.
The trackless swamp has not yet
been entirely explored, and the sur.
weyor's chain has never been stretched
across more than one-ha of it's three
hundred square miles. 1t is only oc'
casionally that parties of hunters
enter its jungles to shoot the game
which abounds in numbers in the
tglades. The parts Of the swamp that
have been cleared and drained are only
d, on The edges of the woods or along the
y sides of the canal, which passes
Through the swamp. This canal is
twenty-three miles long and six feet
deep.
Half a century ago this Dismal swamp
! canal was one of the most important
highways of Virginia, but the heavy
competition of the Albemarle & Ches
apeake canal has forced it gradually
into the background 1t is one of the
Oldest canals in the United States and
in the early colonial days there was nc
J.. eastern Virginian of any prominence
who was not connected with it. The
building of the canal was great event
and afterward it figured prominently
IN the war of the revolution. George
Washington was connected with it il
the capacity of surveyor and director
and his knowledge of it and the swami
through which it ran enabled him t.
obtain supplies that were great,
needed when he was .contending will
CORVALLIS at Yorktown.
When the country around the swami
was first settled by the Virginia plant
ers the swamp was one impenetrabl
mass of enormous trees and dense un
derbrush, but the black slaves sool
began to penetrate the dark an
gloomy wilds in search of juniper an
cypress shingles Nearly all the south
ern homesteads were rooted with shin
giles of these trees, and good part O
the Virginia homes had their single
out of the9ismal swamp. The great
est difficulty with which these slave
had to contend was the soggy cond
ton of the soil, which was not stron
enough to hold the weight of n mar
and the wheels of the carts sank dee
into the mire The farther they pent
trated the swamp the greater this diff
Guilty appeared to grow, until at las
they resorted to the expedient of dis
ging watercourse or ditch larg
enough to float the logs down. Til
ditch was only a few feet deep. A
first it stretched from Deep creek,
tributary of the Elizabeth river, to
Short distance within the forest. Yea
by year the timber was cut away alon
the banks of the ditch, and as the d.
mand for juniper and cypress increase
the ditch was extended farther into tn
almost impenetrable swamp. The LOG
were fioated down the canal to Dee
creek and from thence down the Eliza
beth river to Norfolk.
The digging of the canal was thu
slow and unprecedented. 1t was e.
tended only as the need Of more timo'
made it necessary, and as such thing
as steam shovel7 were unheard OF u
progress was slow. The towering G.
press trees were felled by the negrc'
and many OF the trees were split
into shingles on the ground. In
,ulayes had certain amount OF wor