The New Hampshire Gazette

The Lake of the Dismal Swamp.—The form
of the lake somewhat resembles a kidney, and its greatest
width is about six, and its breadth three or four
miles. Its waters are colored with the roots of the juniper,
as it is said, but we are inclined to believe that
the color is derived from the vast quantity of sodden
vegetable matter accumulating for centuries in the
swamp. If the Mediterranean is tideless the lake is
shoreless, for the trees that bound the expanse are up
to their waists in water, and some of them, hung with
moss, stand out from the main forest like some solemn
ambassador of the woods in full and formal dress, protesting
against the despotism which has so wantonly
assailed his country, and, like most ambassadors at foreign
courts, protesting in vain.
The lake is sometimes very rough ; and one of our
party, who has sailed over the lake in a boat of twenty
tons in a cracking breeze, represents the waves as running
very high, their tops crested like the billows of the
sea, but looking darker than those of the Atlantic. The
weather was moderate while we were there, and there
was merely enough motion to show the heads of the
waves. The greatest depth is in the centre, and does
not exceed usually eighteen, and rarely twenty feet, and
diminishes as you advance to the borders, the bottom
of the lake presenting a saucer-like form. The bottom
of the centre is hard & gravelly, while that of the other
parts is soft, and can be penetrated with a pole, being
much the same as the general level of the swamp.
Our boat passed to the southwest corner of the swamp
to a shingle landing, and making it fast, we followed a
mule track, that is, a causeway of rough logs for the
mules to drag shingles from the interior of the swamp,
until we were led a mile or two from the lake, coming
across two or three temporary shanties with cooking
utensils and clothing, but their inhabitants were absent
at work. The negroes, for none but negroes regularly
live in the swamp for any length of time, speak of going
out of the swamp as going ashore, and they may
be said to be pretty much afloat. There is an old man
at one end of the lake, who has lived there for many
years, supporting himself by fishing, and cultivating
some little patch of swamp, and is called the hermit of
the swamp, but the romance of his character soon dissolves
when the visitor learns that he has a wife and
two stout children. The fish of the lake are perch
pike, some of the latter measuring two feet in length,
and other kinds. When in the swamp, we were struck
with the number of the laurels in bloom.—Norfolk
Beacon.