AN EARLY EXPLORATION OF THE DISMAL SWAM)'. 341 



The lake is entirely surrounded by low, swampy woods. At two or 

 three points, where the ground is slightly higher, are small clearings, 

 the remains of old lumber camps. Tn a very few places, notably at 

 the mouth of the Jericho Canal, soil is being deposited, and marshy 

 flats, occupied chiefly by herbaceous vegetation, extend a little way 

 into the lake. The total present area of these flats, when the water 

 of the lake is at its normal level, is perhaps a hectare (24 acres). 



In spite of the slight differences of elevation already mentioned, 

 the surface of the Dismal Swamp exhibits very little diversity, the 

 variations from the highest, ground to the lowest being insignificant 

 to the eye, although sufficient to induce some alterations in the plant 

 covering. A great, part of 1 he swamp is covered with standing water, 

 which varies in depth at different seasons, but rarely, even in the 

 wettest parts, exceeds 6 decimeters (2 feet), and is usually from 2 to 

 15 centimeters (1 to <> inches). The several ditches or small canals 

 that have been cut through the Dismal Swamp ordinarily contain 

 about a meter (3 or 4 feet) of water. Usually in the early fall a con- 

 siderable part of the swamp is sufficiently dried oil" for a number of 

 weeks to be traversed dry shod, but in its normal condition the 

 greater part is very wet. 



The origin of the Dismal Swamp and of its central body of water, 

 Lake Drummond, offers an interesting problem in historical geology, 

 and one that has been much discussed, but it is outside the province 

 of this paper. 



Col. William IJyrd, a commissioner appointed by one of the colonial 

 governors of Virginia to fix the boundary between that colony and 

 North Carolina, gives an entertaining account of the Dismal Swamp 

 as he and Ins parly of surveyors found if, at that early day. I quote 

 from "The History of the Dividing Line: Run in the Year 1728," one 

 of the papers comprised in the "Westover Manuscripts of William 

 Byrd, esq., of Westover," published at Petersburg, 1841. On their 

 first day in the swamp Mr. Byrd's party were "blessed with pretty 

 dry ground for 3 miles together. But they paid dear for it in the 

 next two, consisting of one continuous frightful pocoson, which no 

 creatures but those of the amphibious kind had ventured into before. 

 This filthy quagmire did in earnest put the men's courage to a trial, 

 and though I can not say it made them lose their patience, yet they 

 lgst their humor for joking. They kept their gravity like so many 

 Spaniards, so that a man might, have taken his opportunity to plunge 

 up to the chin without danger of being laughed at." 



"The ignorance of the borderers" concerning the Dismal Swamp is 

 much complained of, "notwithstanding they had lived their whole 

 lives within smell of it. * * * At the same time they were simple 

 enough to amuse our men with idle stories of the lions, panthers, and 

 alligators they were like to encounter in that dreadful place. * * * 

 The surveyors pursued their work with all diligence, but still found 

 the soil of the Dismal so spongy that the water oozed up into every 



