river herring were taken in
haul-seines in the spring throughout Tidewater Virginia. A crew dragged
the fish ashore to a force of women cutters waiting to prepare them for
salting down.]

[Illustration: Great living oyster mounds, built up by nature through
the ages, impeded ships in the lower James river. At high tide they
were hidden so that unwary pilots struck them; at low they could be
picked over by hand. They remained a threat to navigation until they
disappeared under three centuries of harvesting.

Original drawing by Esther Derieux]

[Illustration: Fishing implements excavated at Jamestown. The large
fish-hook was for ocean cod fishing or possibly for snagging sturgeon
in the river. The spear, attached to a wooden handle, was for stalking
big fish in shallow water, or for capturing those that could be
attracted to a light in a boat at night. The lead weights were suitable
for (right) a handline, (left) a net.

National Park Service]

[Illustration: Early salt-evaporating houses were located close by the
sea, from which the water was channeled in by slow stages to take
advantage of natural evaporation before wood fires finished the job.
When the crystals formed they were shoveled into conical baskets and
drained.]

[Illustration: Courtesy Mariners Museum

An 18th century plan of a solar-evaporating works. Sea water is
channeled into the primary reservoir (DD), from which it is conducted
to (FFF) and (KKK) by progressive stages to the final basins where it
crystallizes.]

The kernel of the situation was reflected by the Dutch traveler,
David De Vries, who made voyages to America from 1632 to
1644:

In going down to Jamestown on board of a sloop, a sturgeon sprang
out of the river, into the sloop. We killed it, and it was eight
feet long. This river is full of sturgeon, as also are the two
rivers of New Netherland. When the English first began to plant
their Colony here, there came an English ship from England for the
purpose of fishing for sturgeon; but they found that this fishery
would not answer, because it is so hot in summer, which is the best
time for fishing, that the salt or pickle would not keep them as in
Muscovy whence the English obtain many sturgeon and where the
climate is colder than in the Virginias.

The effects of the Virginians' favoring tobacco-growing above fishing
were also noted by De Vries on a visit to Canada:

Besides my ves