Year: 1877




know of no trip more full Of
excitement and varied pleasure than
a visit to the Great Dismal Swamp.
The strange, the beautiful, the
weird and solemn in nature are all
blended together, forming a scenic
panorama attractive and interest
ing to the highest degree. There is
nobody who has not actually been
through the Great Dismal that has
the slightest conception of what
kind of place it is, Judging from
its name the popular imagination
makes it vast swamp, quagmire
and unwholesome fen, dark, silent
and damp, where the light of the
blessed snn never enterS-a spot
that seems cursed, and from whose
black, murky surface noisome va
pors arise that breed disease and
death. This is the popular belief,
and it is popular fallacy. No idea
can be more erroneous.


The Dismal Swamp is not vast
bog sunk low into the ground, into
which all the draining of the sur
rounding country flows; on the
contrary, it is above the level
ground some fifteen or twenty feet,
as was demontrated by actual sur
veyS. Instead Of being a recptacle
into which rivers and streams enter
and flow it is in reality an immense
reservoir that in its vast poRge-like
bulk gathers the waters which fall
from the heavens, and pours them
into five different rivers, which flow
onward to the sea. Any one would
imagine that the Dismal was yer.
liable charnel-house that spreads
its miasma throughout the country;
on the contrary, it is the healthiest
place on the American continent.
The swamp is formed entirely OF
green timber; there is absolutely
no decomposed wood; and one sees
trees lying all around in the forests
and swamps. The two principal
woods that grow in the place are
the juniper and cypress, which
never rot. They fall prone on the
ground like other trees, but, instead
of the wood decomposing, it turns
into a peat, and lies indissoluble by
air and water for ages perfectly
sound.


There is nothing in the swamp
to create miasma !; no rising of the
tides and decomposition Of rank
vegetables ; no marshes exposed to
the burning rays of the sun. All
is fresh and sweet, and the air is
laden with as sweet odors as the
fragrant woods in May, when the
sweet perfume of flowers mingles
with the ppngent scent of the pine
and dogwood. In the ante-bellum
days all planters were anxious to
hire their slaves to shingle-makers
in the swamps on account of its
health. Mr.. Reddick,a a well-known
contractor, says he worked Il gang
of fifty hands for fifteen years in
the Dismal, getting shingles, and
in all that time there was not a
single case of ague and fever. /
have seen numerous afidavits of
overSeers and agents who have lived
in theswamp their whole lifetime,
and they never knew a death caused
by miasma, or a solitary instance
of ague and fever. The air is pure
and sweet, and the water tinged to
a faint vine hue by the jumper, is
as potent a medicinal drink as is
the famous watering places of the
Virginia Mountain Spas" 1t is
often used by naval vessels going
on a long foreign cruise on account
of the healthful properties, and also
because it keeps fresh and clear for
years. 1t is strong and inyigorat-
ing tonic, with a very pleasant
taste.


The soil Of the great Dismal is
composed entirely Of clay and veg
etable peat, 1t is spongy and loose.
A pole, thirty feet long, was showed
steadily down by my guide, and did
not begin to touch bottom. The
swamp is alive with game and the
lake with fish. The animals are
bear, der, raccoons and squirrels.
The fish are the black bass, or club,
as they call them here, which rise
readily to the fly; sptckled fish,