The Oologist. 



Vol. XXI. No. 12. 



Albion, N. Y., Dec, 1904. 



Whole No. 209 



The Oologist. 



A Monthly Publication Devoted to 

 OOLOGY, ORNITHOLOGY AND TAXI- 

 DERMY. 

 FRANK H. LATTIN, Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 

 ERNEST H. SHORT, Editor and Manager. 



Correspondence and items of interest to the 

 student of Birds, their Nests and Eggs, solicited 

 from all. 



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ERNEST H. SHORT, Editor and Manager, 

 Chili, Monroe Co.. N. Y. 



The Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia. 



Much has appeared in the columns 

 of our various newspapers in regard to 

 this immense swamp, the existence of 

 which seems to be quite generally 

 known although accurate information 



in regard to it has, in the writers ex- 

 perience at least, been rather difficult 

 to obtain. Both before and after the 

 civil war it was much resorted to by 

 runaway slaves and others who found 

 a safe hiding place in its dense, dark 

 tangles and hence there is considerable 

 romantic interest attached to it. Popu- 

 lar belief has it that the swamp is now, 

 as it may have been then, a very 

 gloomy morass, almost inacessible for 

 travel, abounding in poisonous snakes 

 and making an atmosphere heavily 

 tainted with malaria and swamp fever. 

 To investigate the real conditions, the 

 writer, accompanied by Mr. Paul 

 White of Washington, D. C. paid a 

 short visit to the swamp during the 

 fall of 1901. We were well repaid for 

 our trouble by a sight of this interest- 

 ing country and of the ■ veiy pretty 

 body of water, Lake Drummond, 

 which forms a part of it. 



The swamp occupies a plain about 

 forty miles wide, extending from 

 Suffolk, Virginia to Albemarle Sound, 

 North Carolina. "Its western bound- 

 ary is determined by a sharply defin- 

 ed escarpment, formed by the sea 

 when the continent was about twenty- 

 eight feet below its present level. Its 

 eastern boundary is marked by a series 

 of low elevations, dune like in nature, 

 extending from Norfolk, Va. to Eliza- 

 beth City, N. C." The country is un- 

 dulating in character, well wooded 

 and apparently fertile. The Dismal 

 Swamp Canal, a canal of considerable 

 width and depth, extends from Deep 

 Creek, Va. to South Mills, N. C, thus 

 connecting Chesapeake Bay with 

 Albermarle Sound and affording a 

 safe inside passage to such heavily 



