MOUNT VERNON. 
through them are very bad, and so many of 
them cross one another in different directions, 
that it is a matter of very great difficulty to 
find out the right one. I set out from Alex¬ 
andria with a gentleman who thought himself 
perfectly well acquainted with the way * had 
he been so, there was ample time to have 
reached Mount Vernon before the close of the 
day, but night overtook us wandering about 
in the woods. We did not perceive the ves¬ 
tige of a human being to set us right, and we 
were preparing to pass the night in the car^ 
riage, when luckily a light appeared at some 
distance through the trees; it was from a small 
farm-house, the only one in the way for several 
miles; and having made our way to it, partly 
in the carriage, partly on foot, we hired a ne¬ 
gro for a guide, who conducted us to the place 
of our destination in about an hour. The next 
morning I heard of a gentleman, who, a day 
or two preceding, had been from ten o’clock 
ip the morning till four in the afternoon on 
< horseback, unable to find out the place, al¬ 
though within three or four miles of it the 
whole time. 
The Mount is a high part of the bank of 
the river, which rises very abruptly about two 
hundred feet above the level of the water. 
The river before it is three miles wide, and 
pn the opposite side it forms a bay about the 
