VIRGINIA 99 



in ashes. Portsmouth suffered the same fate, in part. 

 But both places have hopes of coming up ; it will be 

 some time, however, before Norfolk gathers again the 

 6000 inhabitants it is said to have had, including the 

 blacks, trade having meantime been diverted to other 

 channels. These towns lay out of our road, and I 

 mentioned them because of their neighborhood, they 

 having besides become well known from the history 

 of the war. 



A famous region, by which the road from Suffolk to 

 Cunningham's passes, is the Dismal Swamp, also 

 called the Great Dismal Swamp to distinguish it from 

 the Alligator Dismal Swamp which lies not far away 

 in North Carolina, between the Albemarle and the 

 Pemtikoe Sound. This swamp is between Norfolk 

 and Suffolk, Edenton (which is 60 miles from Suf- 

 folk), and the sea-coast, and is a thick, boggy, im- 

 penetrable wilderness, in length 40-50 miles from north 

 to south, and 20-25 miles wide. In it are found most 

 of the North American beasts of prey and other wild 

 animals, bears, wolves, the tiger of these parts (Felts 

 con-color Schreb.), the lynx, opossums, raccoons, foxes, 

 squirrels, and who knows what besides for few peo- 

 ple venture in, and fewer still know anything of what 

 is there except by hearsay. Serpents are rare in this 

 and other marshy regions. While the British gar- 

 risons were yet at Norfolk and Portsmouth, the Amer- 

 icans cut a foot-path through a part of this swamp, to 

 make a more secluded road for spies; that is to say, 

 trees were felled one before the other, over which the 

 passenger must spring and climb; whoever slipped his 

 footing, sank up to the neck in water and deep, fat 

 mire. However, small spots are to be found here and 



