Note 34 — JOURNAL.

Vacant—this term, as used by surveyors, indicates that the tract of land so designated is neither claimed by an actual occupant or occupied by virtue of any official record. Many of the settlers on the lands of Lord Fairfax selected their farms and made improvements without any legal survey, warrant or title, other than a "tomahawk blaze" for a boundary mark, trusting that the actual owner of the land would recognize the improvement and occupant's claim and deal justly by them. These "tomahawk claims" were respected by the actual settlers, had a market value among land speculators and were admitted, to a certain extent, as evidence of rights in the courts.