The Dismal Swamp and Lake Drummond, Early recollections | Page 3

(as it is called) in Southampton county,
states that a young mother, with her infant, fled to the Dismal Swamp

for safety. Mr. James must have drawn heavily on his imagination for a
figure, to make the situation more horrible. I do not think any mother
with an infant would flee to such a wild and desolate place as the
Dismal Swamp, but, on the contrary, would keep far away.
I could relate many interesting stories that I have heard about the
Swamp, but as I am writing from my own observation, will discard all
such from my task. It is true that some very mysterious things have
been seen at various times. I will, digressing a little from my story,
relate one circumstance that was told me by a gentlemen who lived in
Suffolk and was stopping at Lake Drummond Hotel, situated near the
lake shore, and which was visited at that time by many persons from
New York and other places. This gentleman remarked to me that he
was standing near the Lake one morning, and happening to look across
the Lake, to his great astonishment, saw come out of the woods, at a
point so thick with reeds, bamboo and rattan, that you could not get
three feet from the shore, a beautiful, finely-dressed lady; she walked
out on a log about twenty feet into the Lake, with a fishing pole in her
hand. I saw her bait her hook and throw it out into the Lake. He said he
could also tell the color of the ribbon on her bonnet. He watched the
same place every day for several days, and at the same hour each day
the lady appeared as before. I told my friend that he must have been
laboring under an optical delusion at the time, as the Lake was five
miles wide at that place, and that it was impossible for one to
distinguish objects at so great a distance with the naked eye. He replied
that every part of the story was true.
On another occasion, a gentleman, now living in Suffolk, told me that
he was out hunting in the Swamp, and chancing to look to the front saw
snakes coming from every direction, and quite near him he saw a lump
of them that looked to be as large as a barrel. He supposed that there
must have been as many as five hundred, all so interwoven that they
looked like a ball of snakes. He said he was too close on them to shoot,
so stepping back, he fired both barrels of his gun at the bunch. An
untangling at once commenced, and he said, "consarned if he ever saw
so many snakes before." Upon going to the place where he had shot, he
found 150 snakes dead, and as many more wounded. He carried some

of the largest of the dead out, procured a ten-foot rod, and on measuring
found one that measured twenty-three feet. I have related this snake
story several times, but was always very particular to know that the
gentleman who told me was at some other place.
CHAPTER III.
HEALTHFULNESS AT THE SWAMP.
Although the Dismal Swamp is so uninviting, it is one of the healthiest
places in the United States. Death from disease has never been known
in that place, and it is impossible to tell what age one would attain if
they would take up their abode in it. I have been told that instances
were known where persons were found who were so old that they had
moss growing on their backs, and who could give no idea of their age. I
once knew a family by the name of Draper, who lived in the Swamp
near the edge of the Lake. What became of them I do not know; the
spot where the house stood now forms a part of the Lake. The constant
washing of the western shore causes rapid encroachments, and it is only
a question of time when it will reach the high lands. It is in the Dismal
Swamp that Lake Drummond was discovered, by whom I do not know,
but is said to have been found by a man named Drummond, whose
name it bears; that will make no difference with me, the question is,
how came it there? Was it a freak of nature, or was it caused by warring
of the elements, is a question for the consideration of those who visit it?
That it was the effect of fire caused by lightning setting fire to the turf,
or some dead tree, there can be no doubt. At what time in the Christian
era this eventful period was, it is not, nor never will be, known. Suffice
it to say, that it was found