Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-25
THE DISMAL SWAMP.
Jamestown Exposition to Run Excur-
sion Boats Into It.

sion Boats Into It.
From the Boston Herald.
A trip into the Dismal swamp Is to be one
of the attractions offered by the approach
ing jamestown exposition. It Is propos I'd
to open I'D 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. 1t seemed almost
heavenly If they could succeed in reaching
1t. The dismal part 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 primitive life;
they hunted. fished and slept. fought when
elemental passions aroused themselves,
committed occasional depredations on the
border settlements and acknowledged allie
glance to the strongest individual. Few
negroes voluntarily left the swamp for
civilization.
AS early as 17ss Washington surveyed
the swamp, subsequently he formed the
first loan company on this hemisphere, the
Dismal Swamp Land Company. 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
Company Is on the records and there Is a
profit balance for stockholders.
Washington conceived the idea Of digging
q canal from Elizabeth City. N. c., to
Norfolk, Va. and connecting Albemarle
sound with Chesapeake bay. Under his
supervision the effort was undertaken. Here
and there during the progress Of the work
sunken forests were encountered.
The tools of the excavators were highly
inefficient for these difficulties. so the sunk
en- forests were sublimely disregarded and
banks after the fashion Of levees of the
Mississippi were built up on either side for
several miles.
Tools, spades and wheelbarrows, plus en-
ergetic men. did the labor ON the canal,
but time flew by on wings. In comparison
with this venture the Panama canal Of to-
day is no more prodigious. The successive
builders of the canal did not finish their
work until the nineteenth century was In
its infancy.
WashinEton's ditch Is still visible, and
Jericho canal is there-the canal which was
dug for the purpose of floating timber out
of the swamp.
The swamp is largely covered with juni-
per timber, by which the waters are
strongly impregnated with medicinal quail
ties. Peaty formation is definite; in places
vegetable mold exists from ten to fifteen
feet deep. Occasionally fires break out in
the swamp.
water recedes from the surface, leaving it
dry to depth of three or four feet and
fine temptation for a confiagration. The
fires then burn into the peaty mass slowly
for weeks and weeks until at last the
heavy rains of the wet season come and
quench the smoldering mass and restore
the water to the surface again.
The theory of fire origin is given for the
presence Of Lake Drummond. an expanse
of Gle ar water in the heart of the swamp
1t is thought by many students of tho
region that fire of unusual length and
severity during the dry season formed there
q basin several feet in depth. which when
the rains fell again filed up and became
lake.
The canal has been a great commercial
benefit to the Dismal swamp. because it has
done the work of a drainage system. In
the DAYS of the colonists the swamp was
infinitely more marshlike than at present
but with the completion of the canal it was
observed that large areas of morass be.
came traversable for pedestrians.
Today an extensive portion is used for
agricultural purposes. In the North Caro-
lima section a large sheep ranch thrives.