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A swamp is characterized by the presence of trees, a marsh is usually associated with a river or inlet and mainly has grass Beyond this is the considerable metaphorical difference between the two - lots of bad things happen in swamps whereas marshes are generally regard as far more kindly places. We had/have marshes and not swamps. . .. but good luck at trying to convince folks otherwise sam smith PROGRESSIVE REVIEW ssmith@igc.org ================================== To the editor: It seems that many people who read this list interpret swamp to be a derogatory term rather than a merely descriptive one. I had always thought that a swamp was a fresh-water wetland and a marsh was a salt-water one. Either could be tidal or not. Are there any limnologists out there who could discuss this for us? And how do swamps and marshes differ from fens or morasses? No matter what one calls it, we must all agree that Washington had extensive wetlands of varying degrees of beauty and smell. John Lowe jalowe@gwu.edu Rockville, MD ================================== I guess I have to stick my oar in again. I seem to remember discussing the meaning of swamp in Washington History some years ago. As I remember Dr. Johnson said that it was a word derived from Amerindians and meant land too wet to plow. Today we distinguish marsh from swamp primarily on the basis of the presence of trees in the latter. And, of course, their is a whole classification system for wetlands. It seems pointless to try to apply twentieth-century definitions to eighteenth-century concepts. Surely, we can all agree on the fact that there was a great deal of wet land in the federal city. Phil Ogilvie ================================== I was once told that the angle formed by a line from the White House to the Washington Monument to the Capitol was to be a right angle. However, swampy ground forced the Washington Monument to be offset to the east. ----------------------------------------------------- John W. Docktor jdocktor@cyberia.com Washington Map Society: http://www.washmap.org/ ----------------------------------------------------- Matthew Gilmore H-DC list co-editor, web editor dc-edit@mail.h-net.msu.edu http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~dclist/ [list website] http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/lists/subscribe.cgi?list=H-DC [subscribe to H-DC] Remember to check http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=lm&list=h-dc for past list messages.
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