IIA. Prose Description of Site. 



This section treats the remaining portion of the Dismal 

 Swamp north of US 158, not discussed in Washington's Rice Farm 

 (Corapeake Marsh) or the Dismal Swamp Mesic Islands. This large 

 tract (about 13,500 acres) of swamp forest lies between US 158 

 and the NC/VA state line. It is bounded on the west by the Suffolk 

 Scarp and on the east by the Gates/Pasquotank County line. 



The area lies nearly level, at an elevation of about 20 ft, 

 and forms the headwaters of the Pasquotank, Little and Perquimans 

 Rivers, and perhaps a portion of that for the Northwest River. 

 It is underlain by the Dismal Swamp peat, up to 3 meters in depth. 

 The peat overlies the Norfolk sand and the Sandbridge Formation 

 of late Sangamon age (Fig. 9 ). 



Fig. 9. Geologic section through Dismal Swamp from a point in 

 Virginia, across the state line into North Carolina. Then 

 parallel to the state line, across the Suffolk Scarp north of 

 Corapeake, into the Dismal. 



Qhu = Dismal Swamp Peat; QiA, = Sand Bridge Formation (Fm), up[)er 



member, clayey-sand facics; C^t/i, = silty-clay facirs; Ojhi — lower incnilwr; 01 ^ 



l.<)iul(iiiliri(i(><' I'in.; (^n, ■= Norfolk Fm., ( oarse-saiul fa< ies; (^;i, — silty-i lay lai ics; 



Oh, = Miediiiin-sand faiios; On, = fine-sand Cacies; O^I>i = Great Bridqc Fm.. 



silty-clay facies; Qw = Windsor Fm.; QTs = Sedley Fm.; Ty = Yorktown Fm. 



From Oaks and Coch 1973 (plate 2), courtesy Virginia Division of Mineral Resources. 



This tract is large enough to contain valuable habitat for 

 wide-ranging species such as black bear and bobcat, and there were 

 several panther sightings just to the north of the area in 1979 

 and 1980. Most of the following endemic, threatened or special 

 concern species listed in Cooper et al. (1977) probably occur 

 on the site: 



68 



