Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-12-19
THE DISMAL SWAMP.
Jamestown Exposition to Run Excur-
 sion Boats Into It.

SIOu bO0tS lutO IL.
 A trip into the Dismal Swamp Is to be one of the attractions offered by the approaching Jamestown ex- position. It7is proposed to open up a steamboat route through the 1000 square miles involved. which, more over, are said not to be so dismal as their name indicates.
 The Dismal Swamp was once the hiding place of runaway slaves. The swamp itself was not terrible to them. It seemed almost heavenly If they could succeed in reaching 1t. The dismal part, according to the Boston Herald, was their flight across the southern states.
 Once the haven was gained there was security. There was also plenty of game. Tradition says that whole tribes of negroes gathered there. They soon relapsed into primi- tive life; they hunted, fished and slept, fought when elemental pas sions aroused themselves, committed occasional depredations on the bor- der settlements and acknowledged al- legiance to the strongest individual. Few negroes voluntarily left the swamp for civilization.
 As early as 1763 Washington sur veyed the swamp; subsequently, he formed the first loan company on this hemisphere, the Dismal Swamp Land Go. The stock was subscribed for with some hesitation. but 1t paid small dividends and remained within Virginia families. Even as late as the present year the Dismal Swamp Land Co is on the records and there l is a profit balance for stockholders. Washington conceived the idea of digging a canal from Elizabeth City, N. C.. to Norfolk. Va, and connecting Albemarle sound with Chesapeake bay. Under his supervision the ef- fort was undertaken. Here and there during the progress of the work sunken forests were encountered. The tools of the excavators were highly ineficient for these difficulties 50 the sunken forests were sublimely disregarded and banks after the fash ion of levees of the Mississippi were built up on either side for several | miles.
 Tools, spades and wheelbarrows | plus energetIc men, did the labor or | the canal. but time newsby on wings | Tn comparison with this venture the Panama canal of to-day Is no more | prodigious. The successive builders of the canal did not finish their worh until the nineteenth century was ir | its infancy.
 Washington's ditch is still visible and Jericho canal Is there-the cana
 which was dug for the purpose ol | floating timber out of the swamp.
 The swamp is largely covered witt juniper timber, by which the water' are strongly impregnated with medi cinal qualities. Peaty formation fl definite: in places vegetable moult
 exists from ten to fifteen feet deep Occasionally fires break out in thu
 swamp.
 If the season be unusually rainles the water recedes from the surface leaving 1t dry to a depth of three ol four feet and fine temptation for ; confiagration. The fires then burr into the peaty mass slowly for week. and weeks, until at last the heav. rains of the wet season come ant quench the smouldering mass and re
 store the water to the surface again
 The theory of fire origin 10 givel for the presence of Lake Drummond
 an expanse of clear water in th' heart of the swamp. It 10 thought b
 many students of the region that 1 fire of unusual length and severit, during the dry season formed ther'
 a basin several feet in depth. whicl
 when the rains fell again nlled ul and became . lake.
 The canal has been q great com
 mercial benefit to the Dismal. al.Swamp
 because 1t has done the work of 1
 drainage system. In the days of th
 colonIsts the swamp was infinitel
 more marsh-like than at present. bu
 with the completion of the canal
 was observed that large areas q
 morass became traversable for pedes
 trians-
 To-day an extensive portion 10 use'
 for agricultural purposes. In tn
 North Carolina section large sheeI
 ranch thrives-