INTRODUCTION. 
17 
low and marshy and some of it subject to overflow by the highest storm- 
tides. No part of this immense tract is more than 15 feet above sea 
level. The highest part is the region about Pungo Lake. 
Some 35 years ago the State undertook to drain that part of the tract 
between Pungo Lake, Pungo River and Mattamuskeet Lake, and ex- 
pended nearly $200,000 in the effort, but without bringing much addi- 
tional land into cultivation or into market. Most of that part ot the 
swamp is too peaty to be of any value agriculturally. 
About the same time a canal was cut by the State connecting Matta- 
muskeet Lake with Pamplico Sound, with the expectation of exposing 
an immense area of fertile soil, by reducing the level of the lake to that 
of the sound. The surface of the lake was lowered about four feet, and 
a large tract around the margin of the lake exposed, but it was found 5 * to 
be nothing but a white beach of fine sea-sand. 
Above 100 square miles of the great Dismal Swamp lies within this 
State. Much of it is a peat bog, and a very large portion is covered 
with a stunted growth of shrubs and dwarfed trees, — pine, bay, gallberry, 
myrtle, &c., the soil consisting of a mixture of vegetable matter but little 
decayed, and fine sand. There are, however, occasional belts and 
patches of excellent soil, indicated by a heavy growth of gum, and pop- 
lar, &c. There are some considerable settlements, and many fine farms 
have been hewn out of the midst of the Dismal, which are very productive 
in corn, wheat and stock. 
A third considerable body of swamp land, called Bay River Swamp , 
is situated between Pamplico and Neuse rivers, adjacent to Pamplico 
Sound. Its area is 30 or 10 square miles. It contains large bodies of the 
best qualities of swamp soil, which, when drained, as are several large 
tracts on and near Bay River and South Creek, produce large crops of 
corn, wheat and cotton. 
Dover Swamp , in Craven county, between the Neuse and Trent rivers, 
has an area of about 150 square miles, and an elevation, (at least in its 
central parts), of more than 60 feet above the sea. Most of it belongs to 
the inferior grade of swamp lands, and is gladey and infertile. South-west 
of Pamplico Sound there is a long stretch of swamp extending westward 
a distance of more than 50 miles, and having a breadth of 5 to 15 miles. 
It is interrupted, however, by projecting sinuses of firm land at a num- 
ber of points, so as in fact to sub-divide it into at least two (nearly equal) 
parts, the eastern, an oval peninsula, of about 150 square miles, called 
the Open Ground P rairie / and the western, under the name of the While 
O ale Swamp. The latter encloses five lakes in its higher and interior 
portions, from which issue numerous streams, north, east and south. 
15 
