"Worked hard till night, and then returned. After supper we were lighted
into a room; and I, not being so good a woodsman as the rest, stripped
myself very orderly, and went into the bed, as they called it, when, to
my surprise, I found it to be nothing but a little straw matted
together, without sheet or anything else, but only one threadbare
blanket, with double its weight of vermin. I was glad to get up and put
on my clothes, and lie as my companions did. Had we not been very tired,
I am sure that we should not have slept much that night. I made a
promise to sleep so no more, choosing rather to sleep in the open air
before a fire."

George commenced operations for Lord Fairfax early in March, when the
mountains were still white with snow, and wintry blasts swept over the
plains. The heavy rains of spring had swollen the streams into torrents,
so that it was perilous to ford them. Of course the hardships of such an
expedition were largely increased by the rough, cold weather of the
season.

Abbot says: "The enterprise upon which Washington had entered was one
full of romance, toil, and peril. It required the exercise of constant
vigilance and sagacity. Though these wilds may be called pathless still
there were here and there narrow trails, which the moccasined foot of
the savage had trodden for centuries. They led in a narrow track,
scarcely two feet in breadth, through dense thickets, over craggy hills,
and along the banks of placid streams or foaming torrents."

Everett says: "The hardships of this occupation will not be fully
comprehended by those who are acquainted with the surveyor's duties only
as they are practised in old and thickly settled countries. In addition
to the want of accommodation, the service was attended by serious
perils. In new countries, of which 'squatters' have begun to take
possession, the surveyor is at all times a highly unwelcome visitor, and
sometimes goes about his duties at the risk of his life. Besides this, a
portion of the land traversed by Washington formed a part of that
debatable land, the disputed right to which was the original moving
cause of the 'Seven Years' War.' The French were already in motion, both
from Canada and Louisiana, to preoccupy the banks of the Ohio, and
the savages in their interest roamed the intervening country up to
the settlements of Virginia."

Another entry in his journal is the following:

"Rained till about two o'clock, and then cleared up, whe