514 



FAKJIERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



thickness 1 The flood of liquid mire, which was 

 supposed above I'or the pur|/0.«e ol' illustration, ol' 

 course was impossible. Neitlier coukl the de]io- 

 site have been made by the alluvinin of the streams 

 — because they bring down very httle, and be- 

 cause the soil of the swamp is not such as would 

 be formed by such a cause. It is not principally 

 earthy — as are all alluvial deposites, of every 

 grade of fertility and consistence — but vegetable — 

 and this peculiar and regular constitution may point 

 out the origin, and explain the growth, of this vast 

 body of high morass. 



Before seeing the Dismal Swamp, and making 

 some examination of its different soils, I had al- 

 ways considered that no true peat soil existed in 

 Virginia — and that it could not form, nor remain 

 long, if already tbrmed, owing to the warmth and 

 length of our summers, and the consequent ease 

 with which vegetable matters runs into fermenta- 

 tion and putrefiiction. I have several limes inci- 

 dentally expressed ibis opinion in dilTerent publi- 

 cations, and the last time, but a few days before 

 visiting this region. (Far. Reg. p. 50 i vol. IV.) 

 I still hold this opinion, as to all common lands 

 and localities, and in circumstances similar to 

 those in which most peat mosses exist in Europe. 

 But the Dismal Swamp is certainly a peat soil, or 

 soil ibrmed almost exclusively of veijelable mat- 

 ter, though the kinds of plants, and the manner oi' 

 the formation, may ditler much from European 

 peats. In Scotland, the climate is so damp, and 

 the summers are so short and cool, that in many 

 situations, the natural vegetation of one year, if leif 

 undisturbed, will not rot during the next; and it re- 

 mains, either wholly or principally, adding to the 

 height of the surface t^oil, without ix'wimr it any in- 

 crease of fertility. If water flows into such land, 

 it is absorbed by the vegetalile matter, anti acts to 

 give greater vigor to growing mosses, and other 

 aquatic plants, and still more to retard their putre- 

 fiiction when dead. Thus, in the situations most fa- 

 rable to the formation, that is the coldest and most 

 moist, (without being overflowed by water,) the 

 peat grows to many feet in depth — and ev^en on 

 pasture lands, or arable left nntilled, the surface be- 

 comes peaty or moory, havinij an excess of vege- 

 table matter, but in that undecomposed state which 

 makes a soil less, instead of more productive un- 

 der tillage. Hence, the |)eafs of Britain, vvhether 

 of 6 inches or 6 yards deep, are barren, or at least 

 tending to make a soil unproductive : and when 

 brouahl under tillage, besides drainaixe, these soils 

 require operations to decompose their excess of 

 vegetable matter, to fit them for producing grain 

 crops. For this purpose, the dry and shallow 

 peats are pared and burnt — and the deep peats are 

 limed, dug up and stirred, and even manured with 

 dung, to quicken fermentation. Now no such 

 formation of soil can take ))Iace in such a climate 

 as ours, because the summer's heat and continu- 

 ance are more than sufficient, under onlinary cir- 

 cumstances, to fi^rment all the vegetable matter 

 that the precedinir year had produced. Paring 

 and burning the soil, which is a common and ex- 

 cellent part of preparatory tillage in England, on 

 any common highland soils that have been lefl in 

 pasture, could not be effected in Virginia — and if 

 it cou/d, would be injurious, by destroyinji ihe ve- 

 getable matter, wliicb, if not burnt, would be de- 

 composed soon enough. 



It is true that we have soils as entirely of vege- 



table formation as many of the peals of Britain. 

 Such are all tiie fresh water tide marshes, parts of 

 many swamps, and the whole of the great Dis- 

 mal Swamp. But tlie diflerence I take^to be this. 

 The vegetable soils, being kej)t constantly either 

 covered by, or saturated with water, are kept from 

 entirely rotting, and are increased in thickness by 

 annual accessions of vegetables. But though not 

 enough rotted to lose much of the bulk, (hey are 

 enough so to form mvinure : and these lands need 

 only perfect draining to be at once highly ftirtile. 

 Then indeed the soil begins to rot too rapidly ; 

 and if kept dry, will continue to rot as long as a 

 great excess of vegetable matter remains. Hence 

 the opinion which I have long maintained by rea- 

 soning, and to my very great loss have seen proved 

 in practice, that our fresh water tide marshes, if 

 diked and drained, will rot away, as deep as they 

 are made dry enough for tillage. 



The soils of the JDismal Swamp are much nearer 

 to the peat of Europe than any other that I have 

 observed: indeed the upper layers of the juniper 

 lands, to the depth of some inches, may be form- 

 ed of the same mosses. But below the living 

 roots, though still it is all of" vegetable formation, 

 the plants aie so rotted they are simply a soft 

 black mud. The general cover of all this kind 

 of ground, under the shelter of the large frees, 

 shrubs, or reeds, is a thick carpet of tender mossy 

 plants, which rise to 4 or 5 inches high, and which 

 are taken up by the hand so easily, thai they seem 

 to have scarce'y any hold of the ground. Where 

 these grow, the surface is as wet as waier can 

 malce it, if not covered an inch or two. This, the 

 least solid of the whole, is the soil most favorable 

 to the juniper trees — which stand, barely support- 

 ed by the lonirtap root, in these quaking lioirs of 

 of "surf" or "sponge," as this earth is called by 

 the laborers. 



The peat of Europe, or at least certain qualities 

 of it, is good fuel : and I have but lately learned 

 from a very intelliszent gentleman who resided in 

 Boston durin<r the late war with England, that the 

 peat of JMassachusetts was then used for fiiel, in 

 consequence of the scarcity and high price of coal. 

 In an article in a New England paper which lias 

 since reached me, I see the use of the same fuel 

 recommended at this time. The vegetable soil of 

 the Dismal Swamp, (like that of our tide marsh- 

 es,) when dry, is highly combustible — and being 

 principally of vegetable origin, would leave but 

 little ashes, or earthy residue. But on account of 

 beinij so well rotted, it vvould probably make but 

 poor fuel. 



The immense and continually growing fields of 

 peat, which are spread over the earth in cold coun- 

 tries, are probably Ihe materials f()r future beds of 

 coal, after being buried deep in the earth by some 

 of the convulsions of Nature which have so often 

 chanired the fiice of the globe. When compress- 

 ed by the weiirht of mountains to the density of 

 stone, the peaT of the most open texture, or the 

 most rotted and worthless, may become a coal val- 

 uable for fuel. I do not believe that iieologisis ad- 

 mit this theory of the formation of coal : but it 

 seems to me a more plausible origin than from 

 other than peaty matter. 



It is not difficult to conceive how the soil of the 

 Dismal Swamp should have been growing in 

 thickness, and spreading over more extent ol sur-^ 

 face ; and that it shall continue to do both, if 



