y admired the rich virgin soil, the luxuriant grass, and
the heavy timber of primitive forests. Thirty-six days after Spotswood
had set out from Williamsburg, and on the fifth day of September, 1716,
a clear day, at about one o'clock, he and his party, after a toilsome
ascent, reached the top of the mountain. It is difficult to ascertain at
what point they ascended, but probably it was Swift Run Gap.

As the company wound along, in perspective caravan line, through the
shadowy defiles, the trumpet for the first time awoke the echoes of the
mountains, and from the summit Spotswood and his companions beheld with
rapture the boundless panorama that lay spread out before them, far as
the eye could reach, robed in misty splendor. Here they drank the health
of King George the First, and all the royal family. The highest summit
was named by Spotswood Mount George, in honor of his majesty, and the
gentlemen of the expedition, in honor of the governor, named the next in
height, Mount Spotswood, according to Fontaine, and Mount Alexander,
according to the Rev. Hugh Jones.[388:A] The explorers were on the
water-shed, two streams rising there, the one flowing eastward and the
other westward. Several of the company were desirous of returning, but
the governor persuaded them to continue on. Descending the western side
of the mountain, and proceeding about seven miles farther, they reached
the Shenandoah, which they called the Euphrates, and encamped by the
side of it. They observed trees blazed by the Indians, and the tracks of
elks and buffaloes, and their lairs. They noticed a vine bearing a sort
of wild cucumber, and a shrub with a fruit like the currant, and ate
very good wild grapes. This place was called Spotswood Camp. The river
was found fordable at one place, eighty yards wide in the narrowest
part, and running north. It was here that the governor undertook to
engrave the king's name on a rock, and not on Mount George.

Finding a ford they crossed the river, and this was the extreme point
which the governor reached westward. Recrossing the river, some of the
party using grasshoppers for bait, caught perch and chub fish; others
went a hunting and killed deer and turkeys. Fontaine carved his name on
a tree by the river-side; and the governor buried a bottle with a paper
inclosed, on which he wrote that he took possession for King George the
First of England. Dining here they fired volleys, and drank healths,
they having on thi