Saturday 11th. Thermometer at 34 in the Morning—44 at Noon and 40 at Night.
Weather clear and cool, Wind at No. West, and ground hard froze in the Morning. Rode to all my Plantns. and to the Mill. On my Return found a Mr. James Hains, the Manager of the James River Canal here—sent by the Directors to me—and to proceed with Letters from me to the Potomack and Susquehanna Works which being given, he proceeded after dinner to the former.
Brought a Load of Salt in my Boat from Alexandria, for Fishing.
mr. james hains: James Harris, who carried a letter dated 2 Mar., to GW from Edmund Randolph introducing Harris as “a mechanic, formed by nature for the management of water, when applied to mills,” and asking GW to aid Harris’s inspection trip to the two navigation projects (DLC:GW). susquehanna works: In 1783 Maryland chartered a company similar to the Potomac and James river navigation companies to make the Susquehanna River navigable through Maryland. By 1786 the company was cutting a canal along the left bank of the river beginning at Port Deposit, just below the Pennsylvania line, and eventually running almost to its mouth. After 20 years of work the canal was officially open but was never successful; it was later superseded by the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal, the Maryland portion of which ran along the right bank of the river (, 2:524; , 34, 71–73).