Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-05-12
LIE pIsMAL sWAMP.
A GLOOMY Region Inhabited BY Fierce An
mails.


A Gloomy Region Inhabited BY Fierce AM
mails.
The Dismal Swamp in Virginia, one
OF the largest Of the swampy tracts in
America, is also one of the most promis-
ing areas for reclamation. It contains
fully fifteen hundred square miles, and
is at present of little value, except for a
supply of timber which is constantly di-
minishing. The swamp is situated on
an inclined plane, gently undulating,
and is really nothing but continuation
of the low, swampy, coastal plain,
which extends from Texas northward
1t is an old sea-bottom, and the western
boundary of the swamp is a sea cliff
and beach. Owing to the original de-
ficiency of slope it is swampy because
the water cannot run off, and its swampy
nature is increased by the growth of
vegetation which acts like a sponge in
retaining water.
Near the center of the swamp is the
famous Lake Drummond, about which
so much has been written, and the
origin of which is still an unsettled
question. 1t has been supposed that
during some time of drouth fire, burn
ing the peat, has produced a large de-
preston in which the waters of the
Jake have gathered. Prof. Shaler, of
the United States geological survey,
considers this explanation to be i'm
probable, although smaller pools have
been produced in this way. He offers
as a theory that as the vegetation grew
, upon the old sea- bottom, which had
been raised to dry land, it began to
extend over the entire area, Lake
Drummond being the last place to
be filled. One of the most in
teresting features connected with
the Dismal Swamp, is it's peculiar vege-
tation. Trees generally cannot grow
in very swampy tracts for their roots
need to have access to the air during the
growing season. The bald cypress
(Taxodium distichum) under ordinary
conditions differs in no way from an
ordinary tree with respect to its roots,
but in swamps such as the Dismal
Swamp where the roots are beneath
water all the year, it has formed the
habit of sending a knee-like protuber-
ance from the roots up above the water
into the air-breathing holes, one might
say, for the roots. In this way the
cypress can live in very wet swamps.
The black gum of the Dismal Swamp
accomplishes the same end by arching
its roots so as to raise portions of them
above water.
AS would be expected the animal life
of this great swamp is also peculiar.
No squirrels exist because there are no
nuts; ground-loving animals are also
absent because of the extreme wetness,
so that there are no mice, moles, SPUR
rels, or other animals of this class.
Birds which build on the ground cannot
live here, and the chief animal popula-
ton of the higher classes consist of
water birds and snakes. OF the larger
animals bears are abundant, and there
is a peculiar and very ferocious species
of wild horned cattle. These animals,
probably the descendants of former
domesticated cattle, are now thorough
ly wild and very dangerous. The fights
of the wild bulls are said to be very ex-
citing by those who have seen them,
and in the contests between the bears
and bulls both are sometimes killed. II
is said that the bear, in order to escape
the danger from the horns of the cattle,
have the habit of springing upon their
backs and rending the muscles which
support the heads of their prey.
This region is in part wilderness,
but some efforts have been made to
drain it, though these have been in
the main unsystematic and unscientific,
and have produced little result of value.
Prof Shaler estimates that by a proper
system of draining this great swamp,
fully one hundred and sixty thousand
acres of land can be reclaimed at cost
of four million dollars, making the land
worth some sixteen million dollars. The
region is very favorably situated for
cultivating and marketing garden crops.
Experiments already made prove the
soil and climate to be admirably adapted
to the cultivation of vegetables. The
Norfolk district, where a costly system
of fertilizingis necessary, now furnishes
large part of the supply of such crops
to from four to five million people along
the northern coast, and the demand is
certain to increase. The drainage chan
nels could furnish water transportation
to within mile of every part of the
titled area and thence to the seal.
Ralph, in American Agriculturist.
He Had Found 1t Hard Work.
He dropped into an armchair and
closed his eyes, apparently utterly OK
hauSted