The Mena weekly star., 1913-12-04
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 .5urbep Sets. 6obenment @. *.
Lines Run With Common Compass More Than 160 Years Ago, Stand Test of Modern Instruments.
(From the Forest Service, U. s. De-
 pertinent of Agriculture.)

kFP0m the crest SeINlCt, U. .. Dc-
 partment of Agriculture.)
 Government surveyors, who have just been checking up some of the lines reputed to have been run by George Washington in his days of chain and compass work have found them good.
 About i75l, according to tradition George Washington, then t9 years old, ran out for Lord Thomas Fair fax the line between what was then to be Augusta and Frederick coun- ties, Virginia, this being only a part of a great deal of surveying which he is said to have been engaged upon at that time These two coun- ties were separated from what was then Orange county, and the grant to Lord Fairfax was supposed to ex- tend westward to the Pacific ocean. Subsequently these large tracts were further subdivided, so that the Fairfax line" as it is generally known, runs now between Rocking ham and Shenandoah counties with the original Augusta and Frederick counties to the south and north re- spectively.
 In the organic act for the forma- tion of the two counties, or par ishes,' as they were then called, it was required that the line should be a straight one from the head spring of Hedgman river, one of the sources of the Rappahannock, to the head spring of the Potomac.
 Since it was required that the line should be straight it was first necessary to get the approximate course by building large bonfires on the intervening high points. Then starting from the top of the Mas sanutten mountains, the line was run straight away over intervening mountains and rivers toward the northwest.
 The Fairfax Stone.
 Away off across a part of what is now West Virginia there is a large rock, known today as the Fairfax stone. It is the monument which marks the southwest corner of Gar ret county, Maryland. the southeast corner of Preston county, West Vir- einia, and prominent points in the boundaries in two other West Vir- einia counties A line from Orange court house, coinciding with the Shenandoah and Rockingham cOun- ty line. passes through this Fairfax Stone, which gives the name to a nearby station, Fairfax. on the Western Maryland railroad. It has been assumed that, in running this line. a high peak northwest of Orange court house was the start ing point, and that from here it was possible to see distant peak in the North mountain range over the top of the intervening Massanutten mountain.
 Washington, of course. used a simple compass and his line could not be expected 10 check absolutely with that obtained by the govern ment surveyors who have retraced his survey. using high-power tram sits and all the refined and accurate methods which modern instruments allow Nevertheless. the line was run so carefully in the first place that but little variation has been found in it. Even without instru- ments it is possible to distinguish the course of the line with surpris- ing distinctness. From the top of Middle mountain, in the Manssanut- ten range. the Shenandoah-Roc ham. or Fairfax, line can be readily followed by means of the boundary fences dating from earliest days, and by the blocks of timber, alternately cleared away or left standing, which come up from either county and