Ellicott and party sailed from Natchez down the river and at Clarksville began work. On April 11th, he says, they "set up the clock, a small zenith sector, and proceeded to take the zenith distance of pollux, for five evenings successively, the first three, with the plane of the sector to the east and the others with the plane west. From the result of those observations, it appeared that we were three miles and two hundred and ninety perches too far north. This distance my assistants, Messrs. Gillespie, Ellicott, Jr., and Walker, traversed with a common surveying compass and chain, to the south, in order to discover (nearly) a proper place to encamp, and set up the large sector, to determine the first point in the line with accuracy. When this traverse was completed it was found to be impracticable to convey our instruments, baggage and stores directly from Clarksville to the most eligible place, owing to the extreme unevenness of the country on the one hand, and the banks of the Mississippi not being sufficiently inundated on the other, to give us a passage by water through the swamps and small lakes; it was therefore determined to descend the Mississippi to the Bayou Tunica (or Willing's Bayou); from whence I understood we could convey our instruments, stores and baggage, either by land or water, almost to the place of beginning; though not without some difficulty. The distance from Clarksville to the Bayou Tunica by land is but eight and a half miles, but by the Mississippi more than fifty. "On the 24th we left Clarksville, and arrived at the Bayou Tunica on the 26th, being detained one day by head winds. "On the 27th my assistants were sent to carry a line east from the termination of the traverse already made, into the high land, and on the 28th I went and examined the country over which the guide line passed, and fixed upon a very elevated situation, about one thousand four hundred feet south of it, for our first position; but the difficulty of getting our instruments, baggage and stores to it, appeared much greater than I first expected. A party of our men were directed to open a road from the height already pitched upon, to Alston's Lake; the distance was about one mile. The road was completed on the 30th, and on the first day of May we moved and encamped on the top of the hill. Our instruments, baggage, &c., were first carted from the Bayou Tunica to Alston's Lake, into which I had previously taken through the swamp two light skiffs: the articles were then taken by water, up the lake to the point where our road from the hill struck it, and from thence packed on horses to our encampment. The country was so broken, and covered from the tops to the bottoms of the hills, with such high, strong cane, (arundo gigantea,) and a variety of lofty timber, that a road from the Bayou Tunica, to our camp, could not be made by our number of hands, in less than a month passable for pack-horses.