Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-28

of 1t as If had caught the measles, for the
f1sh had never done anything to me and
Ia as soon eat waterdog a catfish
Suil' some OF the party fished for hours in
the delusive hope of at least getting nib
pies enough to lie about when they got
home.
N. B. have affidavits covering my catch
There Is no steamer on the lake and all
the navigation is done in canoes and small
boats-very dangerous media OF transpor-
tation when sudden storm arises and
sweeps the bosom OF the deep. man was
drowned there a year or so ago. but not
one-thousandth as many lose their lives
here as on the ocean. where the p.cst i'm
proved facilities of navigation ey which
speaks well for the lake boats.
Barring the novelty OF our situation, we
slept well that night and awoke next morn
| ing feeling frisky as colts, for there is
a tonic in this air which is anything but
malarial- Indeed, sickness is unknown In
the swamp, and when the swampers want
to die they have to get out of IL. Uncle
Ballard Copeland. the genius of the swamp
has been living there year around for many
years, and he is growing younger. and they
say he Is becoming romantic and is con-
templating matrimony.
The Trip out.
Our party followed the steamboat party
of the day before at o'clock on Sunday
morning. four going by the Jericho ditch
and the others by the Washington way, so
as to see all there was to be seen. Ed was
our gondolier via Jericho. and a wilinger
fellow to let his passengers assist in the
ceremony of padding you never saw. They
say 1t Is ten miles out that way, but
| think i have some signs concealed about
my person which would indicate that il is
| forty. Ed told us stories of the bears in
the swamp, and the deer and the 'coons
/ and the wild cattle, about the only NAM
malta the swamp possesses, though believe
there are some squirrels. Birds seem to
stand 1t pretty well, and in the less thickly
grown portions they make the swamp redo
lent of song. The wild cattle are sui
| generis, so 1 am told, and there are sup
posed to be 500 in the swamp. They orig
| mated from domestic stock, but now there
is no more domesticity about them than
there is about society woman. They and
the bears have frequent fights. making a
sort of a Wall street of the swamp, greatly
to the credit Of the swamp: | have my
doubts as to the frequency of these fights.
but 1t sounds well in print. There are
| snakes, though. galore, and we counted
| twenty-one on our way out, not as many
by forty-four as the steamer party, up the
| day before, reported. However, we didn't
have to believe what they told us. any more
than we did the other legends of the
swamp. They sell no liquor at the Hotel
Dismal, and 1 have concluded they do not
Just to prevent the growth and development
| Of these snake stories.
The only person living in the swamp is
Uncle Ballard Copeland. though along its
edges. for it begins quick. are many small
| farmers and "swampers-men who work
inside getting out timber.
The soil is composed entirely of roots
and yarbs." and in the entire circuit there
is not dirt enough visible to breed a real
estate boom. Somewhere, though, there is
something to breed mosquitoes and green
and yellow flies, which in the later summer
drive out all corners. The mosquitoes are
almost large enough to fry, and the green
| flies are SO poisonous in their bite that IL is
1 al
which, presume, they use to improve their
compilations.
| The Pipe Stem Crop.
The timber OF the swamp is cypress.
| Juniper. maple. ash, gum. pine, fishing poles
| and pipe stems. These latter occupy all the
available space. and i have made calcu-
lation as to the quantity OF pipe stems In
that swamp. / counted six reeds to the
square foot, with five joints of stem to the
reed, each joint six inches long. There are
| 10000 acres in the swamp, with 43,oou
| square feet to the acre, or 390.0oo.Oo feet
In all; this multiplied by the number of feet
| Of stem to the foot and divided by the num-
Der of feet in a mile gives us in round num-
| bers ], 221 GOO miles of pipe stems, and still
! the cigarette habit is carrying on every
year many Of our young men whom We can
easily spare without serious detriment to the
social fabric. AS TO the length OF fishing
| poles in the swamp. 1 leave that TO the
| fertile fancy Oh the men WHO naIlult Nuc IOu
and know a whale from a sucker, yet never
recognize anything but whales.
| Cypress Trees and Their Knees.
The interesting tree of the swamp is the
| cypress: tall and graceful. and presenting
that odd growth known as cypress knees. -
These grow up from the roots of the trees
under the water seldom attaining a height
above three feet and looking like the stumps
of amputated legs. Just what they are
| there for is a mooted question with botan-
| ists but not knowing any more about bot
/ any than do about geology, venture the
statement that they ought to be called
cypress lungs, instead OF knees and then
everybody would know the function they
perform. Some other trees growing in the
| swamp. with their roots below the per.na-
nent water line. have something of the same
way of getting air. and none do which grow
above the water line. The Juniper tree IS
becoming scarcer, but there is enough there
yet to maintain the beautiful topaz tint OF
the water and impart to it qualities which
have made Ii famous wherever ships have
sailed, for they take IL with them in prefer
ence to any other. How il viii mingle i'm a
/ toddy or julep only those know who have
carried the other ingredients into the swamp
with them, for no man of our party was
wise in this respect Somebody has tried il.
though. for there is little patch of mint
growing in front of the hotel.
| p. S.-A hint to the wise &C. &C. and
| Why there should be such an absence of
| legends as attaches to the Dismal Swamp
| fail to understand, unless those who lived
| about IL when the legend fourished else
| where were neither poetic nor leisurely. OF
| course stories are told OF the slaves who
| ran away in the old times TO live or die IN
| the swamp, fettered only by nature, but
| these are prosaic and true. What we yearn
| for is the romantic legend, such as Moore
| built his poem upon, and IL looks as IL the
| woods should be full of them.
Corduroy Promenades
Speaking of promenades. reminds me that
there are such in the swamp, and they are
unique. They are called "tramways." ard
are corduroy paths, five feet wide. with
wooden rails on them, for the transporta-
| ton of timber from the interior to the wa
ter. We went to one, a mile from the no.
tel in a boat. and climbing over roofs and
snags to make landing, walked along Il
for two or three miles, and If there is n
more novel and attractive promenade than
that in this broad land of freedom / would
like to lease IL for the purpose of exhibit
ton. There are others of these wavs
easy and inexpensive work TO extend them
everywhere and make all points of the
swamp accessible.
We reached daylight at Jericho junction
four hours after leaving the lake. and once
more stretched our legs on terra frma
with an infinite sense of relief and vet with
feeling that We hadn't had enough Of the
swamp.
My advice to those visiting the Big Dis
NAL is to go in by Jericho way and come
out by the other ditch. as in that manner
the interest of the trip increases. the Wash
ington ditch being much more wild and
beautiful There are other bitches through