A member of the National Geological Survey recently entered the Dismal Swamp, proceeding westward from the Dismal Swamp Canal toward the lake, and found that the rise in the land was five and one-half feet in seven miles. We met this gentleman, Mr. Atkinson, within the bounds of the swamp, and on hearing his statement asked him, "Could the lake be lowered and the swamp drained with such an incline?"
"Certainly," he said. "It is a very decided water-shed. An opening from the lake to the tide, on the Elizabeth River on the one side and the Pasquotank on the other, would have a fall of twenty-two and six-tenths feet in a distance of less than fifteen miles."
Why, then, is not the lake tapped and its superfluous and injurious water drained? If the Dismal Swamp lie on the side of a hill, as science proves, and the flow of the water demonstrates, why does not its superfluous water run off into the sea?
If the whole extent of the Dismal Swamp, land and lake together, is from twelve to twenty-five feet higher than the sea level, while actually adjoining the sea, why, in the name of reason, is it not drained and reclaimed?
These are the vital questions relating to the
