r, which caused me suddenly to look up, and about half a
stone's cast from me appeared a prodigious creature, much
resembling a man, only somewhat larger, standing right up in the
water with his head, neck, shoulders, breast and waist, to the
cubits of his arms, above water; his skin was tawny, much like that
of an Indian; the figure of his head was pyramidal, and slick,
without hair; his eyes large and black, and so were his eyebrows;
his mouth very wide, with a broad streak on the upper lip, which
turned upward at each end like mustachioes; his countenance was
grim and terrible; his neck, shoulders, arms, breast and waist were
like unto the neck, arms, shoulders, breast and waist of a man; his
hands if he had any, were under water; he seemed to stand with his
eyes fixed on me for some time, and afterward dived down, and a
little after riseth at somewhat a farther distance, and turned his
head towards me again, and then immediately falleth a little under
water, and swimmeth away so near the top of the water, that I could
discern him throw out his arms, and gather them in as a man doth
when he swimmeth. At last he shoots with his head downwards, by
which means he cast his tail above the water, which exactly
resembled the tail of a fish with a broad fane at the end of it.

Judging from the few piddling regulations and restrictions referred to
in extracts already cited, the Virginia lawmakers could see no need for
intensive or even active supervision of the Tidewater fisheries. A
rather epoch-making law was enacted in 1678 by the county court of
Middlesex County, which is about 50 miles from James City, at the
juncture of the Rappahannock river and Chesapeake bay:

Whereas, by the 15th act of Assembly made in the year 1662, liberty
is given to each respective county to make by-laws for themselves;
which laws, by virtue of the said act are to be binding upon them
as any other general law; and whereas several of the inhabitants of
this county have complained against the excessive and immoderate
striking and destroying of fish, by some fire, of the inhabitants
of this county by striking them by a light in the night time with
fish gigs, wherby they not only affright the fish from coming into
the rivers and creeks, but also wound four times that quantity that
they take, so that if a timely remedy be not applied,