TORREYA OAna^r 



Vol. 41 September-October, 1941 No. 5 



The Great Swamp 



Kenneth E. Wright 



The Great Swamp is in the town of South Kingstown in south- 

 ern Rhode Island, near the village of West Kingston. About 1.5 

 miles west of the West Kingston rotary on the South County Trail 

 (State Route 2) a sign has been erected in commemoration of the 

 Great Swamp Fight. This sign proclaims that "Three-quarters 

 of a mile to the southward on an island in the Great Swamp the 

 Narragansett Indians were decisively defeated by the united forces 

 of the Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and Plymouth Colonies, 

 Sunday. December 19, 1675." This battle broke the resistance of 

 the Indians under King Philip, and is responsible for the swamp 

 often being called King Philip's Swamp. The region is approxi- 

 mately ten square miles in area. This figure includes all that land 

 within the encircling one hundred foot contour line, omitting most 

 of the extensions of the swamp along the tributaries, and including 

 that high land known as Great Neck which extends from the north 

 to the margin of Worden's Pond. The highest point on Great Neck 

 is 155 feet, and the lowest elevation is 94 feet at Worden's Pond 

 in the south. From the center of Worden's Pond to the center of 

 Larkin's Pond in the northeast corner of the swamp, a straight- 

 line distance of about 2.5 miles, the increase in elevation is one foot. 

 Between the lowest and highest points of this general area there is 

 a wide diversity of habitat, affording the botanical explorer an 

 ever-changing shift of scenes. 



Worden's Pond is the largest body of fresh water in Rhode 

 Island. With an expanse of some 1,400 acres the average depth 

 is about 3.5 feet. In many places a luxuriant growth of Juncus- 



ToRREVA for July-August (Vol. 41: 105-144) was issued August 24, 1941. 

 ToRREVA for September-October (Vol. 41: 145-180) was issued October 30, 



1941. 



145 



