Year: 1877

A swamp that is not a swamp. bat Ainaest


Fairy Land.


know of no trip more fnll Of ex'
citement and varied pleasure than 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
interesting to the highest degree. There
is nobody who has not actually been
through the "Great Dismal" has the
slightest conception of what kind of a
place it is. Judging from its name the
popular imagination makes 1t a vast
swamp, quagmire an unwholesome fen,
dark, silent and damp, where the light Of
the blessed sun never enters-a spot that
seemed cursed, and from whose black,
murky surface noisome vapors arise that
breed disease and death. This is ths
popular belief, f,,and it is a popular fallacy.
No idea can be more erroneous.


The Dismal swamp is not vast bog
sunk low in the ground, into which all
the draining Of the surrounding country
flows; on the contrary, it is above the
level of the ground some fifteen or TWEEN
ty feet, as was demonstrated by actual
surveys. Instead OF being receptacle
into which rivers and streams enter and
flow, it is in reality an immense reservoir
that in its vast sponge-like bulk, gathers
the waters which fall from the heavens,
and pours them into five different rivers,
which flows onward to the sea. Any one
would imagine that the Dismal was a
yeritable charnel-house that spreads its
miasma throughout the country or 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 one
sees trees lying all around in the forests
and swamps. The principal woods that
grow in the place are the juniper and the
cypress, which never rot. They fall
prone on the ground like other, trees, but
instead of the wood decomposing, il
turns into 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
pungent scent Of the pine and dogwOod.
In the ante.bellum days all planters were
anxious to hire their slaves to shinkle.
makers in the swamp on account of its
health. Mr.. Reddick, well-known con-
tractor, says he worked gang Of fifty
hands for fifteen years in the Dismal,
getting shingles, and in all that time
there was not single case of ague and
fever. have seen numerous af6davits
OF overseers and agents who have lived
in the swamp their whole lifetime, and
they never knew death caused by
miasma, or solitary instance of ague
and fever. The air is pure and sweet
and the water, tinged to faint-wine hue
by the juniper. is as potent medicinal
drink as is the famous watering-placcs 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 il
keeps fresh and clear for years. 1t is q
strong and invigorating tonic, with a
very pleasant taste.


The soil Of the Great Dismal is COM
posed entirely of clay and vegetable peat.
II 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, deer, racoons and squirrels. The
fish are the black bass, or club, as they
call them here, which rise readily to the
fly. speckled fish, beach fish, gars, catfish
and perch. They all bite freely at bait,
and make game fight if hooked. Fish
ing is entirely done with rod and reel.
Though the bear abound in the swamp,
it is very hard to get shot at them.
You can often hear them crashing
through the cane-brakes, but rarely see
them. A few months ago one big black
bear deliberately passed through the
village in dog-trot. 1t raised the vii
lage. Old men took their single.barrels
that hadn't gone off for hundred years,
and that were all the world like Rip Van
Wrinkles fowling.piece, and instantly
snapped them of. Everybody got their
arms, but Monsieur lie Bruin kept on re-
gardless, Of the bird shot that rattelt
against his hide, and at last, after traver-
sing the entire town, disappeared in the
woods beyond, where, no doubt. in bear
language, he told his companions of his
wonderful adventure.


There is no highway, or road through
the swamp. enly a canal runs some dis
tance up it to bring out the shingles
which, being made Of juniper and cy-
press, are the most durable in the world.
There is nothing else in the Dismal that
can be turned to use. The lumber bust
ness has fallen lamentably of since the
war, and but few shingles are made now.