[Footnote 13: Cate's marsh and Long marsh--these are names of small streams which flow from the foot hill of North mountain to the Shenandoah river and have along their course considerable meadow or marshy land. Long marsh is of sufficient importance to be named upon the maps of Virginia.] Tuesday 15^{th} We set out early with Intent to Run round y^e s^d Land but being taken in a Rain & it Increasing very fast obliged us to return, it clearing about one oClock & our time being too Precious to Loose we a second time ventured out & Worked hard till Night & then return'd to Penningtons we got our Suppers & was Lighted into a Room & I not being so good a Woodsman as y^e rest of my Company striped myself very orderly & went in to y^e Bed as they called it when to my Surprize I found it to be nothing but a Little Straw--Matted together without Sheets or any thing else but only one thread Bear blanket with double its Weight of Vermin such as Lice Fleas &c[14] I was glad to get up (as soon as y Light was carried from us) I put on my Cloths & Lays as my Companions. Had we not have been very tired I am sure we should not have slep'd much that night I made a Promise not to Sleep so from that time forward chusing rather to sleep in y. open Air before a fire as will appear hereafter. [Footnote 14: For comments on fleas and other vermin see note 4. Washington's "Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour," p. 14, Washington's association with frontiersmen in their primitive cabins, which the position of a surveyor in the then almost unbroken forest necessitated, was to him a new and peculiar experience. His observations and reflections of the first few days are recorded with a naivete which is truly charming.] March y. 15^{th} 1747-8 Survey'd for George Fairfax Esqr. a Tract of Land lying on Cates Marsh and Long Marsh Begining at three Red Oaks Fx on a Ridge the N^o Side a Spring Branch being corner to y^e 623 Acre Tract & Extending thence N^o 30° E^t 436 poles to a Large Hickory and Red Oak Fx near John Cozines house thence N^o 60° W^t 90 Poles to a Large White Oak Fx thence N^o 7° E^t 365 poles to Long Marsh 420 poles to 2 Red Oaks and W: Oak in a Poyson'd field[15] by a Road thence N^o 65° W^t 134 Poles to a W: Oak by y^e s^d Marsh thence crossing y^e Marsh S^o 20° W^t 126 poles to another Branch: of Long Marsh 218 poles to a Red Oak Fx thence N^o 80° W^t 558 po: to a Large Red Oak & White Oak Fx in a Valley thence S 25° W^t 144 poles to a Black Walnut in a Poysond Field by a Lime stone Rock thence S^o 33½° E^t 96 to a White Oak thence S^o 20 E^t 316 po. to three Red Oaks in a Bottom in W^m Johnstones line thence with Johnstones S^o 80° E^t 30 po to a Double Hickory Coll^o Blackburns corner 114 po to 3 Hickorys Johnstones corner & corner to y^e afores^d 623 Acre Tract thence along y^e lines thereof East 280 poles to 3 Red Oaks finally along another of the lines thereof S 15° E^t 262 po. to y^e beginning