File:Athletics and manly sport (1890) (14753300666).jpg

Identifier: athleticsmanlysp00orei (find matches)
Title: Athletics and manly sport
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: O'Reilly, John Boyle, 1844-1890
Subjects: Boxing Games Canoes and canoeing
Publisher: Boston, Pilot publishing company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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year, made a complete survey of the DismalSwamp, with profound results. Throughout hislife the secrets of nature he had there discoveredwere never forgotten ; and years afterward, whenthe Revolutionary War was over, and he was thefather of his country, he purchased the swamp,and organized the Dismal Swamp Land Company,which still exists and continues its ownership. Washingtons original design was not the merecutting of timber, but the entire reclamation of theswamp. He had perceived the immediate possibilityof bringing almost its entire area into cultivation.His great project failed in this its first purpose;not because it was impracticable, but because thecompany found that the timber-cutting aloneyielded an unexpected and almost incredible reve-nue. The reclamation of the land was graduallygiven up, and as it was found that by holding andraising the water the timber could be more easilytaken out, the locks began their work of still fur-ther drowning the whole district. Then came the
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CANOEING IN THE DISMAL SWAMP. 411 commercial canal, with power over all the waterin the swamp, and devoid of intelligence and pub-lic spirit, and the land of the Dismal Swamp wasdoomed. Washington himself surveyed the swamp forthe route of his canals. His first cutting, runningfrom the northwest corner of the lake in a westerly-direction, ended at what is called the Reed Farm,on the Edenton road, seven miles from Suffolk.It is still called Washingtons Ditch. It hasfor many years been abandoned as a means oftravel, a more direct route — the Jericho Canal —having been made at a later date. The JerichoCanal leaves the lake at the same lock as Wash-ingtons Ditch, and ends within two miles ofSuffolk, running into the Nansemond river. I paddled up both these canals from the lake,and more oppressive surroundings it is hard toconceive. The Jericho Canal is ten miles long andeighteen feet wide, but the encroaching bamboojungle reduces this width by over two feet on eachside. The dense cane

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