Dismal Swamp.

Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 4: Dionysius to Friction, p. 13

Dismal Swamp. measuring 30 miles from north to south by 10 in breadth, lies chiefly in Virginia, but partly in North Carolina. In the centre is Lake Drummond, about 6 miles broad; elsewhere its dense growth of cypress and cedar has been greatly thinned, and part of the region has been reclaimed. The tract is intersccted by a canal connecting Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound.

Source scan(s): p. 0022