Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1897-09-03
DISMAL SWAMP CANAL.
A Graphic Picture of its Present
Appearance and Con-
dition.
THE SUCTION DkEDGES.
The Improvements Now Under
Way, That are to Restore
This Famous Water
Way to Enlarged
Usefulness.

Usefulness
a year ago the Dismal Swan
Canal was a ditch seven fee
deep and thirty wide, br;mmint
with clear brown juniper waite
and fringed with cane brake ant
dainty green things. To day a
Deep Creek it carries only (
small stream of muddy waite,
further dehled by the blacl
grease from the dredges, it:
unwatered sides are cracking il
the sun and the green fringe i:
dried up and dead. Four mile:
north of Deep Creek is the frst
dredge, working north, a dipper
widening the ditch to sixty feet
by cutting away on the west
side. The dipper cuts out the
first seven feet of earth and is
supposed to remove all the roots.
1t takes out nearly all, leaving
enough small ones, however, to
choke the pumps of the suction
dredges at frequent intervals. 1t
"dips" out the great stumps and
roots of trees long ago cut down
and forgotten, and lifts them,
earth and all, out on the banks.
The top of the swamp proves to
be black soil closely interviewer
with the roots of cypress and
juniper, twisted up i'll fashion
indescribable. They strikingly
resemble the roots and branches
in Doves "Wandering Jew"
shown in the picture above the
couplet:
"Now when fantastic visions fill the
air,
Sorrow surrenders to a dull despair"
1t may be that at last the
scource Of inspiration of the great
4raughtsman ofgrotesques has
been discovered i'll the roots of a
juniper swamp.
Two miles south of the dipper
is the first section dredge. From
a distance the latter looks like a
big Dutch boat with a flume laid
across the top, reaching fifty feet
either side, and with a couple of
turbine wheels from all old
fashioned mill set up in front of
it. The Dutch looking hull
proves to be a boiler-house,
engine-room, etc, built on a
big scow. The turbine shafts are
the shafts of two siX>foot augers,
which bore out the bottom of the
ditch. Pumps, not visible, carry
up this mud and water to the
fume overhead, which has an
endless apron in it to carry the
mass out some fifty feet and let
it fall on the bank, whence some
of the water returns to the canal.
The pumps deliver faster than
tlfe apron can carry away and a
great deal of mud falls beside
the machine, keeping the road
in such condition that travellers
need endless aprons and endless
good nature, too, if they would
enjoy their journey. The second
section dredge is working about
two miles below the first and
completes the Northern "hotilla.
Another such hotilla is working
toward South Mills, and a third
dipper dredge is enlarging the
from Lake Drummond.
The company runs a large
gasolene boat as tender to the
dredges and a forty foot stream
launch to carry the superintend~
ant about, and to transfer the
gangs of men from work to bed,
etc.
The dredges were built at
Wallaceton, the material having
been brought in on lighters.
They began work in the middle
and have to eat their way out as
the men wished he might do
with the schooner load of Lynn.
haven oysters. The original plan
was to do the work with the
section dredges, new kind, of
which the management hoped
great things. The construction
Of the swamp made this imposes
ible, and the three dipper dredges
had to be built to open a way
for the new kind. The suction
dredges pump out SO much water
that temporary dams have been
placed some miles in front of
each fotilla in order 20 keep
back water enough to float the
machines. All the coal and oil
and other supplies now have to
be hauled in carts, more expen-
sive than water transportation.
The whole working force of
about 100 men is boarded and