Once he conceived the idea of reclaiming the Great Dismal Swamp, 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 were a great nuisance to the wealthy planters on its banks. Fishing and duck-hunting lured them thither. One day Mrs. Washington remarked to her husband, "I think that strangers are at the landing." "Are you sure they are strangers?" "Yes, I think so," Mrs. Washington answered. "Look and see." "They are strangers, surely," responded Washington, after a critical look towards the landing. "An oysterman's craft, I think." "What should an oysterman come to our landing for?"