Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1871-03-10

COMMUNICATED.

Fishing On tAs Poton.s River.
CCoMNUSIcATED.
Mr.. WELLS: / observe 10 the Times an
article over the signature of H." in answer
to ono by Consumer" wherein L asks the
latter some questions which possibly he twho-
ever he. may be) cannot or will not answer.
Consequently have determined to try and
see II I cannot answer for him.
L wishes to know if shad and herring de-
post their spawn in "out-of-the- way places"
how does the gillnet reach them. when they
don't 60 to such places7 Shad and herring
not only deposit their spawn in out-of-the-way
places, but everywhere, as Consumer says.
where they can find logs, sticks. &c. He
ought to have added, wherever they can find
hard gravel bottom, or rock, stone and even
an anchor thrown out for few hours. Now,
how do We know this7 Because, 10 bringing
up any of those things in spawning time we
always find them covered with spawn, glued
hard and fast-even to an anchor. But II
any mud is brought up on the auke of the
anchor, stone or log, we never see spawn on
it. 1t is reasonable then to suppose that the
fish never throw away their spawn on mud,
or anything they cannot fasten it to.
Now let US suppose gillnet sunk deep in
the water, with long strings between the
corks and net, in order to let the largest ves-
sells pass over without hanging-the net drag
ging the bottom, of course-will not the deli
cate but strong twine, made expressly, take
hold Of and grapple with stick and turn it
over? and, il covered with spawn all is lost,
the eggs being in the mud. Now, remember,
the OILERS are legion, and they begin their
murderous work low down the river and fol-
low the fish up.
Further on, L asserts that Consumer is
wrong in bis opinion that OILERS cause high
price Of fish; he says, "such is by no means
the CASE" Consumer, he again says, Seems
to forget the increase Of consumers and many
facilities for transporting fish long distance
from where they are caught" All that may
UC SIuCs OOb - - - uoSSSI VI duy uupOIt.
ance to L. will show him the fish books of
one of the best fisheries on the Potomac, dat
ing back Fifty years aud eomming down to
1870. L will therein see that the quantity
Of fish kept up and the price down until some
twenty years ago, when the gillnets made
their appearance in numbers. He will see
that many hauls ranged from one to three
hundred thousand and prices at one dollar
per thousand and be will see in the same
set of books the quantity of fish gradually
coming down, and for the last few years not
one-tenth as many caught as there were forty
years ago. Any old fish-eatsr in the county,
on the shady side of sixty, will bear me out 10
this assertion. But need we 60 to fish books
or history? Does not common sense teach
all who arc not interested in gilling, that the
river Potomac cannot stand such . terrible
drain - is now going on7 Say two thous-
and gillnets, many Of them thousand yards
long, a. am told, stretched across the river,
packed and jammed for miles, and this bloody
swsAlno1ts1ssft G7ss u Tour fh6htns every
year-must not the Potomac share the fate Of
the Northern rivers7 The fsh then are ex-
terminated aud the very men who did it are
now upon US. confess L is for oustlng
them, but no others. Nor am for molest-
ing ours if they can be kept within bounds.
But am not willing to see the shad and her.
ring exterminated because men are poor
There is other work that poor men can engage
10. and will, from necessity. just as the duck
ers have done, ia . year or two hence. Be-
sides, there are some very poor men in the
county who have as strong . claim on our
sympathy and az strong claim on the Po-
tomac a. the OILERS. They want cheap fish
and plenty Of them, but they will never get
them from the OILERS, with but few excep-
tons. Their fish 60 upon the wings of the
wind, frst to Washington and then to the
Northern markets in ice.
L says OILERS are too poor to equip and
haul a seine. Now my opinion is, the cost of
twenty-five nets. with their boats and other
fixtures, 10 sufficient to rent and 6t out good
shore, and as there are two men to every boat
there are certainly men enough to haul it..
But the strongest argument with the giller-
and / am surprised L did not use it on Con-
sumer-is, that they are poor men, and it is
hard to stop poor man from catching few
fish and let tho rich man do it. Now that
argument would be unanswcrsble but for the
great mischief they do, FIRST BY monopoly and
then by destruction Where there is one
poor man gilling there are twenty equally
poor who want cheap fish. Now which
should we befriend, the one, or tho twenty 2
The maxim is, we should have laws that will
do the greatest good to the greatest plumber.
There is another serious evil looming up
from gilling. Our colored population are
turning their attention that way consequent
ly the little colored labor we have left US will
soon be lost to the farmer during four of the
most Important months in the year, and the
negro giller will lounge about till next gilling
season, thereby setting bad example to the
few who will work by the year.
L did not tell US (possibly be did not know
that as soon as the weather gets little warm
the cells attack and eat fish when they are
hung In the meshes of the gillnet, and from
one-fourth to one-third are thus destroyed and
lost to man. Nothing like this is done by
seines. He did not tell Us that the giller con-
tinues this ferocious and bloody war, and
feeding the cells, for three or four months, and
the seine bauler for FIVE or six weeks only.
He did not tell US that the giller unites With
the great enemies of the shad and herring,
such as catfish and mullst. in the work Of ex-
termination; whereas the seine protects the
III