Catchd 2 Foxes." For two weeks thereafter they hunted almost every day with varying success.

September 30, 1769, he records: "catchd a Rakoon." On January 27, 1770, the dogs ran a deer out of the Neck and some of them did not get home till next day.

The finding of a deer was no uncommon experience, but on no occasion does the chase seem to have been successful, as, when hard pressed, the fugitive would take to the water where the dogs could not follow.

January 4, 1772, the hunters "found both a Bear and a Fox but got neither." Bear and deer were still fairly plentiful in the region, and the fact serves to indicate that the country was not yet thickly settled, nor is it to this day.
In November, 1771, Washington and Jack Custis went to Colonel Mason's at Gunston Hall, a few miles below Mount Vernon, to engage in a grand deer drive in which many men and dogs took part.

Mason had an estate of ten thousand acres which was favorably located for such a purpose, being nearly surrounded by water, with peninsulas on which the game could be cornered and forced to take to the river.