Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-11-24
CHARLES SIMMS.
Gill Nets Gill Nets !


To the Citizens Of Washinstnn, Fredt.
rick, and Montgomery counties.
4 S the General Assembly of Ma.
N ryland will sit in the course +
a few weeks, I take tho liberty Of call.
ing the attention OF the people Of tho
upper counties to the subject Of OH
Nets that all thnse who may agree
with mc in opiHion, may unite in pc.
iitions to the Legislature to pass such
laws as may efftctually 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
pernicious effects of this practice. Ii
is a fact we'll known, that many per.
sons at tue last season, after leaving
their homes, with their teams, at the
most busy season of the year, and ira.
yelling, perhaps. from so to 10c miles
to reach the nearest landings, and at.
ter being detained there considera.
BILE time, exposed to the incIemencies
of the weather, and often without any
shelter but what was afforded 70 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 Herrinss, but not one in
ten could get the Shad they wanted
f. their families. These Gill Nets,
it is said, are fished almost exclusive
ly by persons from the Eastward-a
covetous 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 a number of Nets will form such
an obstruction in the river as to keep
back the Sbad altogether and by
breaking the schools of Herrings will
render even the catching of them I'M
certain. And what adds to our gricv.
ance, the fish that are caught in this
manner are not disposed of to our CT
tizens, but are cured on board the
vessels that take them, and carried as
an article of traffic to some other pOr-
tons of the Union, or, perhaps, to TO-
reign parts.
The people Of the upper counties
are peculiarly situated; living remote
from any of the Rivers, with which
nature has so bountifully watered our
state, they have only an opportunity
to them once a 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 il
too, with great sacrifice, expense and
and it must be known too to
The members that may compose that
body, that fish, from long use and Gus
tom. have become indispensabIy neces.
'ary to our families.
If any doubt should exist as to tho
'acts herein stated, l 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 tie landings either of the
.wo last seasons, particularly the last.
Having said much more than in
ended, l have only to call upon all
hose who feel an interest in this bu.
'incss, to lose no time in getting sig.
natures to such a petition as have
'ecommended,-and also to see and
converse upon the subject with such
persons as they may think proper to
'end as delegates to the next General
Assembly ; and l have also to request
he favor OF the editors of the Frede-
'icktown papers, to give these re.
marks a place in their respective pa
,ers, that the subject may be fully
brought before the people of the upper
ONE OF THE PEOPLE.