ans were beginning to compete with
Canadians and New Englanders in exporting salt fish, particularly to
the West Indies, where a large proportion of them were exchanged for
the rum so freely used on the plantations as slave rations.

There were no dams barring access to the highest reaches of the rivers
and no cities and factories to discharge pollution, so that the
river-herring and shad made their way far inland even to the Blue Ridge
mountains. There the pioneers awaited them eagerly each spring and
salted down a supply to tide them over till the next run. Small wonder,
then, that the love of salt herring--always with corn bread--became
ingrained in so many Old Virginians!

They had an illustrious exemplar. Once, in 1782, when George Washington
was due to visit Robert Howe the honored host wrote to a friend:
"General Washington dines with me tomorrow. He is exceedingly fond of
salt fish."

Despite obstacles a healthy experimentation in the various phases of
fishing was now and then manifest. For example, in 1710 one adventurous
fisherman wished to extend the home fisheries to whaling and applied to
the Virginia Council for a license. Whales, though not common in
Chesapeake bay or the ocean area near it, had been noted from time to
time ever since the birth of the Colony. Most often they were washed
ashore dead. John Custis, of Northampton County, succeeded in making 30
barrels of oil from one such in 1747. The year before that a live one
was spotted in the James river by some Scottish sailors who were able
to comer it in shallow water. After killing it, they found it to
measure 54 feet! The _Virginia Gazette_, published in Williamsburg,
carried this item in 1751:

Some principal gentlemen of the Colony, having by voluntary
subscription agreed to fit out vessels to be employed in the whale
fishery on our coast, a small sloop called the _Experiment_ was
some time ago sent on a cruise, and we have the pleasure to
acquaint the public that she is now returned with a valuable whale.
Though she is the first vessel sent from Virginia in this employ,
yet her success, we hope, will give encouragement to the further
prosecution of the design which, we doubt not, will tend very much
to the advantage of the Colony as well as excite us to other
profitable undertakings hitherto too much neglected.

Commented John Blair in his _Diary_ on the incident: "Heard our first
whale brought in an