re, and praying for relief therein by a
declaratory order of this Grand Assembly; it is ordered and
declared by this Grand Assembly that every man's right by virtue of
his patent extends into the rivers or creeks so far as low water
mark and it is a privilege granted to him in and by his patent, and
that therefore no person ought to come and fish there above low
water mark or haul seines on shore without leave first obtained,
under the hazard of comitting a trespass for which he is sueable by
law.

In most cases this decision somewhat limited a landowner's claim. But
on the seaside of Virginia's Eastern Shore conditions have always been
so that at low tide thousands of acres of land are laid bare, with the
result that "low water mark" is in many cases difficult of
interpretation as a boundary between waterfront properties and the
public domain.

Toward the close of the century fishing methods had shaped up
advantageously compared to the crudities and hit-or-miss practices of
the first settlers. Robert Beverley described them in 1705:

The Indian invention of weirs in fishing is mightily improved by
the English, besides which, they make use of seines, trolls,
casting nets, setting nets, hand fishing and angling and in each
find abundance of diversion. I have sat in the shade at the heads
of the rivers angling and spent as much time in taking the fish off
the hook as in waiting for their taking it. Like those of the
Euxine Sea, they also fish with spilyards which is a long line
staked out in the river and hung with a great many hooks on short
strings, fastened to the main line, about four foot asunder. The
only difference is that our line is supported by stakes and theirs
is buoyed up with gourds.

The abundance of the fisheries never ceased impressing visitors. A
French tourist added to the chorus in 1687:

Fish too is wonderfully plentiful. There are so many shell oysters
that almost every Saturday my host craved them. He had only to send
one of his servants in one of the small boats and two hours after
ebb tide he brought it back full. These boats, made of a single
tree hollowed in the middle, can hold as many as fourteen people
and twenty-five hundredweight of merchandise.

As if to crown the final emergence of recognition of the home fisheries
William Byrd I instructed his agent in Boston in 1689 to send him a