to Capt. Hite's, near Fredericktown;
and went ourselves down the river about sixteen miles (the
land exceedingly rich all the way, producing abundance of
grain, hemp, and tobacco), in order to lay off some land on
Cole's Marsh and Long Marsh.

"15th.--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 any thing 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 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.

"18th.--We travelled to Thomas Berwick's on the Potomac, where
we found the river exceedingly high, by reason of the great
rains that had fallen among the Alleghanies. They told us it
would not be fordable for several days; it being now six feet
higher than usual, and rising. We agreed to stay till Monday.
We this day called to see the famed Warm Springs. We camped out
in the field this night.

"20th.--Finding the river not much abated, we in the evening
swam our horses over to the Maryland side.

"21st.--We went over in a canoe, and travelled up the Maryland
side all day, in a continued rain, to Col. Cresap's, over
against the mouth of the South Branch, about forty miles from
the place of starting in the morning, and over the worst road,
I believe, that ever was trod by man or beast."

In this diary, he also entered such items as these,--the number of
acres of each lot of land surveyed, the quality of the soil, the
growth of plants and trees, the height of the hills, the extent of the
valleys, and the length, breadth, and course of the streams. From the
items thus collected, he would draw the materials for the reports it
was his duty to submit, from time to time, for examination, to his
patron or employer; and such was the clearness, brevity, and exactness
displayed therein, and such the industry, skill, and fidelity with
which he performed his toilsome and difficult task, that the generous
old