―170―

For the Literary Magazine.

some account of the great
dismal swamp.

IN relation to human purposes,
this singular swamp justly deserves
the expressive name commonly
given to it, that of wilderness or
dismal, no condition of the earth's
surface being more wild and irre-
claimable than this. It is scarcely
possible to penetrate or pass through
it. The foot, at every step, sinks
not less than twelve or fifteen inches
deep into the soil. The trees are
generally small; they grow very
thick together, and the undergrowth
or shrubbery is so luxuriant, and
composed of such tenacious, perplex-
ing, and thorny wood, that the sight
is bounded to a few feet, the flesh
wounded and torn at every point,
and a path only to be made by the
incessant use of the hatchet. The
stinging insects are likewise innu-
merable, and extremely venomous,
and the exhalations fatal to human
life. On the whole, it would be dif-
ficult to imagine a situation on this
globe less suitable for human habita-
tion and subsistence than an Ameri-
can dismal.

Yet the very circumstances that
make it unsuitable for man, are those
which produce an incredible abun-
dance of vegetable and animal life.
Not only the surface is covered with
branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit,
to such a degree that the sight can-
not extend a foot beyond the eye,
and the hand cannot be thrust for-
ward an inch without encountering
opposition, but the soil itself, to the
depth of fifteen or twenty feet, is one
closely woven mass of vegetable
fibres. A sharp stake can be thrust
down by the hand to that depth,
through a mossy, spungy, yielding
mass, which, on the withdrawing of
the foot or staff, instantly resumes
its place, so as to leave no trace vi-
sible.

The following particulars, res-
pecting one of these swamps, are
furnished by an intelligent person,
whose calling is that of a surveyor,

―171―

and who has been for many years
employed in constructing a map of
his native state, North Carolina. He
has encamped, hundreds of times,
on the borders of the dismal he des-
cribes, and has penetrated further
into it than any of his countrymen.
His calculations, therefore, though,
from the nature of the subject, not
infallibly or mathematically true,
may yet claim a considerable degree
of credit.

That part of the Great Dismal,
lying between Albermarle Sound
and the frontier of Virginia, contains
about two hundred and fifty square
miles. It is a vast plain, slightly in-
clined, the greatest elevation of the
highest above the lowest part being
about thirty feet. This inclination,
though insufficient to drain off all the
moisture, does yet occasion a consi-
derable flow of waters, south-east-
ward, into a space called Lake
Drummond. This lake is a sort of
standing pool, whose bottom resem-
bles the soil of the swamp. It is
apparently motionless, and transpa-
rent as air; thronged with fish, and
between three and four feet deep.
The banks or borders of this lake
are of somewhat firmer footing than
the neighbouring spaces, the timber
is taller, and the undergrowth less
perplexing. They have even af-
forded an asylum and subsistence to
fugitive negroes for several years.

The margin of the swamp abounds
with pine, oak, poplar, gum, and an
evergreen called laurel, all of gigan-
tic size. The swamp itself produces
the same species, but here they de-
generate into pigmies, whose height
is from fifteen to twenty feet, and
whose trunk is generally equal to
the wrist. The smallness of the
trees is compensated by their num-
ber, and the exuberance of flower-
ing or berry-bearing plants amazing.

Lake Drummond, though supplied
chiefly by that part of the dismal
now under our view, lies within the
frontier of Virginia. Exclusive of
this, and of the Virginian part of the
swamp, the area of the Great Dis-
mal is 250 square miles, or 160,000
acres.