Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-12-10
CHARLES SIMMS.
Gil Nets Gill Nets +!

Cn hNbcS SlMNS.
Gill Nets! Gill Nets!
To the Citizens Of Washington. Frsas.
rick, and Montgomery counties.
A S the General Assembly of Ma.
n ryland will sit in the course of
a few weeks, flake the libsrty of call
ing the attention of the people of the
upper counties to the subject of Gill
Nets that all those who may agree
with me in opinion. may unite in pc.
titions to the Legislature to pass such
laws as may ciiectrally prevent the
use of them hereafter in the Potomac.
Since the introduction OF these Nets
into our waters. the people of the up.
percounties have experienced the most
pernicisus effects OF this practice. 1t
is fact well knowd, that many per.
sons at the last season, after leaving
their homes, with their teams, at the
most busy season ofthe year, and ira.
Yelling, perhaps, from so to IOC miles
to reach the nearest landings. and af.
ter being detained there a considera.
bic time, exposed to the inClemencies
of the weather, and often without any
shelter but what was afforded to them
by the coverings Of their Wagons,
while their crops too were suffering
greatly at home, were obliged at last
to return without any fish. Some pro-
cured their Herrings, but not one in
ten could get the Shad they wanted
for their families. These Gill Nets,
it is said, arc fshed almost exclusive
ly by persons from the Eastward-a
coyctous people they must be they
would take the bread from our mouths
if they could do it--and they certainly
will the fish if left to themselves. 1t
is stated they had 500 vessels engaged
in this business during the last season;
such humber of Nets will form such
an obstruction in the river as to keep
back the Shad altogether, and by
breaking the schools of Herrings will
render even the catching Of them un.
certain. And what adds to our griey-
ance, the fish that arc caught in this
manner are not disposed of to Uur ci
tizcns, but arc cured on board the
vessels that take them, and carried as
an article of traffic TO some other por-
tons of the Union, OF, perhaps, to TO-
reign parts.
The people Of the upper counties
are peculiarly situated; living remote
from airy of the. Rivers, with which
nature has so beautifully watered our
state, they have only an opportunity
alfordeded to them once year OF pro-
curing fish of any kind for their fami.
lies and it rests with the Legislature
to determine whether they shall be de-
prived of this right, attended as it is
too, with great sacrifice, expense and
trouble and it must be known too to
the members that may compose that
body, that fish, from long use and Gus
tom, have become indispensably neces'
sary to our families.
If any doubt should exist as to the
facts herein stated, have only to OBJ
serve that they will be entirely re
moved by referring to any one from
either Of the upper counties, who at
tended at the landings either of the
two last seasons, particularly the last.
Having said much more than ] in.
tended, l have only to call upon all
those who feel an interest in this bn'
siness, to lose no time in getting sig.
natures to such a petition as 1 have
recommended, and also to see and
converse upon tie subject with such
persons as they may think proper to
send as delegates to the next General
Assembly /; and have also to requss'
the favor OF the editors of the Frede.
ricktown papers, to give these re-
marks place in their respective pa
pers, that the subject may be fully
brought before the people Of the upper
counties.
ONE OF THE PEOPLE.
T.>-I- -