a foot in breadth, having legs and a long tail. The
Indians seldom eat of this kind. There is a shellfish of the
proportion of a cockle but far greater [conch]. It has a smooth
shell, not ragged as our cockles; 'tis good meat though somewhat
tough.

And, according to Alexander Whitaker in 1613:

The rivers abound with fish both small and great. The sea-fish come
into our rivers in March and continue the end of September. Great
schools of herrings come in first; shads of a great bigness and the
rockfish follow them. Trout, bass, flounders, and other dainty fish
come in before the others be gone. Then come multitudes of great
sturgeons, whereof we catch many and should do more, but that we
want good nets answerable to the breadth and depth of our rivers.
Besides our channels are so foul in the bottom with great logs and
trees that we often break our nets upon them. I cannot reckon nor
give proper names to the divers kinds of fresh fish in our rivers.
I have caught with mine angle, carp, pike, eel, perches of six
several kinds, crayfish and the torope or little turtle, besides
many small kinds.

When Whitaker penned the word "torope," he was giving the
English-speaking world a new term, new because the animal it defined
was unknown in Europe. Later spelled "terrapin," it meant the
diamond-back, the esoteric little creature that spread the fame of the
Chesapeake bay around the world and became an indispensable course on
menus designed for the entertainment of royalty and the discriminating
elect. The colonists probably ate it prepared Indian fashion, that is,
roasted whole in live coals and opened at table where the savory meat
was extracted by appreciative fingers. Over generations of
terrapin-fanciers it evolved into one of the stars of the gastronomic
firmament. It is a wholly American dish and it was born at Jamestown.

Contemporary Historian Ralph Hamor added his testimony in 1614:

For fish, the rivers are plentifully stored with sturgeon, porpoise,
bass, rockfish, carp, shad, herring, eel, catfish, perch, flat-fish,
trout, sheepshead, drummers, jewfish, crevises, crabs, oysters, and
divers other kinds. Of all which myself has seen great quantity
taken, especially the last summer at Smith's Island at one haul a
frigate's lading of sturgeon, bass, and other great fish in Captain
Argall's seine, and even at the very pla