rivers the Elizabeth, the Nansemond, and Pasquotank, and was high above them.
It needed no wizard to see that such a swamp could be drained.
Washington, in 1763, in his own words, entered the Dismal Swamp, and "encompassed the whole." He camped on the east side of the lake, and unquestionably considered the problem of its formation, for he was astonished, and he astonished others by declaring that all the rivers in the swamp flowed out of it instead of into it.
"The Dismal Swamp," wrote Washington, "is neither a hollow nor a plain, but a hillside." He had discovered, what measurement has since shown, that the lake was 23 feet higher than the sea!
Scientists have accounted for the water in the Dismal Swamp, from cursory observations, by the rainfall, even denying the existence of springs in the lake. I venture, with much hesitation, to disagree with this conclusion, believing it to be impossible that the rainfall can account for the enormous supply of water, not only contained within the swamp, but which is, and always has been, flowing out of it.
First, it is granted that no more rain falls on the Dismal Swamp than on any other piece of
