wamp, and
actually explored it with reference to that ultimate purpose. Through
his agency, the incorporated company known as the Dismal Swamp Company
was organized. "This vast morass was about thirty miles long and ten
miles wide, and its interior but little known" until Washington explored
it, and found a lake six miles long and three miles wide near its
centre.

The large number of guests at Mount Vernon, and Washington's enjoyment
in hunting, fishing, and visiting, particularly in winter time, when the
cares of his plantation were less numerous, appear from his journal. In
the month of January, 1770, are the following entries:

"2. Mr. Peake dined here.

"4. Went hunting with John Custis and Lund Washington. Started a
deer, and then a fox, but got neither.

"5. Went to Muddy Hole and Dogue Run. Took the dogs with me, but
found nothing. Warner Washington and Mr. Thurston came in the
evening.

"6. The two Col. Fairfaxes dined here, and Mr. R. Alexander and
the two gentlemen that came the day before.

"8. Went hunting with Mr. Alexander, J. Custis, and Lund
Washington. Killed a fox after three hours' chase. Mr. Thurston
came in the afternoon.

"9. Went a ducking, but got nothing, the creek and rivers being
frozen. Robert Adam dined here.

"10. Went hunting on the Neck, and visited the plantation there,
and killed a fox after treeing it three times and chasing it
three hours.

"13. Dined at Belvoir with Mrs. Washington and Mr. and Miss
Custis.

"15. Went up to Alexandria, expecting court, but there was none.
[He was county judge.]

"20. Went hunting with Jackay Custis, and killed a fox after a
three hours' chase.

"23. Went hunting after breakfast, and found a fox at Muddy Hole
and killed her. Mr. Temple and Mr. Robert Adam dined here.

"27. Went hunting; and after tracking a fox a good while, the
dogs raised a deer and ran out of the Neck with it, and did not
come home till the next day.

"28. Mr. Temple came here.

"29. Dined at Belvoir with J. P. Custis.

"30. Went hunting, and having found a deer, it ran to the head
of the Neck before we could stop the dogs. Mr. Peake dined
here."

In the following month, February, fox-hunting occupied nine days, and
five days were given to surveying.

The laws of Virginia were very strict against interlopers on the
Potomac. They