Why should there be a large marsh along a portion of the 

 toe of the scarp and not in the rest of the swamp? Hydrology, 

 fire and nutrients may all have played a part. Fire, either 

 lightning-started or set by Indians (Corapeake was originally 

 Orapeake, an Indian village) , could have removed (or prevented) 

 forest vegetation, allowing new herbaceaous growth when the 

 water table returned to the surface. In nutrient-poor wetland 

 areas where f ire-hydroperiod regimes prevent reforestation, 

 pocosin shrub vegetation predominates. Marshes (grassy wetlands) 

 may require more nutrients than shrublands. In this respect, it 

 may be significant that the marsh lies at the mouth of Corapeake 

 Swamp, which could be expected to have delivered a fresh supply 

 of nutrients and bases after each rainfall. 



In the wet interval after fire, and in the presence of 

 surviving subsurface rhizomes and higher nutrient levels, reeds 

 and grasses ( Arundinaria gigantea , Calamogrostis cinnoides etc.) 

 might be competent to rapidly revegetate the area, assuming 

 dominance before establishment of woody species. 



This hypothesis requires four interacting factors: a water 

 table higher than that presently found on the site; seasonal 

 drought (or at least every few years) sufficient to support fire 

 hot enough to kill woody species; fires, probably set by Indians, 

 (and later by settlers to maintain pasturage) , and a supply of 

 nutrients and bases higher than those found in the deep peat 

 areas of the swamp. 



It should be possible to sample soils to determine whether 

 there is a nutrient or pH gradient from the the mouth of 

 Corapeake Swamp into the Dismal. However, it would be expected 

 that there would have been little new nutrient input since 

 construction of Cross Canal. This drainage effectively bypasses 

 any distribution of water or nutrients over the marsh, carrying 

 all nutrient runoff through the site into other areas (originally 

 directly across the swamp into the Dismal Swamp Canal) . 



Finally, it cannot be ruled out that the marsh may have been 

 simply the result of deliberate land clearing by early settlers. 

 Edmund Ruffin (1861) described the practice of clearing swamp 

 lands for agriculture, a few miles to the south in Perquimans 

 County in the 1830' s: 



"On the farms of Messrs. Francis Nixon and J. T. 

 Cranberry , I saw the manner in which these swamp lands 

 are brought under cultivation. The large trees, not needed 

 for timber or fuel are belted and so killed. The heavy 

 forest growth is mostly of gum, poplar, oak and large 

 swamp pine, used for naval timber, some of the latter 

 of great size. The smaller growth is cut down more than 

 once, and mostly dies. The land is used for grazing, 

 until the roots are enough rotted to permit ditching 



51 



