Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1888-03-02
Eish inthe Potomac.

Mr.. J. Il. Connolly former resident of
! this city, in q letter 20 the New York Forest
and Stream writes as follows:
Two causes seemed to have worked to-
! gether for the destruction of the fishing in
| the Potomac river. The first and doubtless
| tie greatest is the wickedly general use of
nets. There a,e. OF course, laws prescribing
! the use OF small meshed gill.nets and re-
straining the employment Of ''pound" and
"fyken nets and kindred other evil contri-
I vances. But these laws, not being enforced,
are worthless. The entire season, from early
April until late November both sides OF
| the channel are lined with stationed nets of
various sorts, in the channel itself deep gill.
nets are floating, and, wherever there is
| shore permitting tie practice, huge seines
are hauled that sweep from yast areas of the
| river everything that lives and swims. 1t is
simply wonderful that any fish ever get up
the stream 80 far as Alexandria. Surely
none ever get back to the bay. There is a law
forbiddiug sbad fishing within the limits of
the old District Of Columbia-which formerly
| took in Alegendria-the southern boundary
OF which is at Lighthouse Point, the inten
tion being TO provide for the chad natural
spawning ground in this reach Of the Poto'
mac But all last summer the water was
dotted with Shad fishers in front of Aexan-
| dria and even above the town, fully two
miles north of the boundary prescribed and
f. nobody nterfered with them. And what
! host Of those fishers there we-e Great
! numbers of men who labor at various
other avocations during the rest OF the
year. in the shad season abandon every
thing else, bring out their muir
derous gill nets and plunge them with
! fren2ied tagerness into the general butch
I cry. For a tme, sbad are surprisingly
I cheap The wholesale dealers pay from $12
| to $l3 per hundred for superb fish. AS hoo
! roe shed as we're ever seen in New York
! ere solo at & quarter dollar each at retail.
Everybody eats them as if possessed by 8
| fury for their determination. They are
packed in ice and sent away by Thousands,
/ aad great quantities are aalted down, like
| pleteian macl1erel for winter use. If any
! soad gcts through 70 the spawning ground
! fGri Aer.up tbs river. fancy that 1t dies OF
! loneliness and is eaten By the eels, as the
/ spawn certainly is. Is it any wonder that
| year by year the Potomac shaG supply
| Gininishes ? or questionable that it will
| continue to DO 80 until there is y reform,
| for q few seasons at least, in the manner OF
| fishing here? spoke OF another cause of
! the decliue Of fishing in the Potomac. That
tine in the quality of the water. Tradition
attirms that Inis was once pellucid river,
in which The black bass would have found
nome suited to his taste. But now it is a
masa of mud, thin enough to move with the
tide, nut seldom, if ever, go clear that
one can sec TO the bottom of q glass
Of il. Excellent bricks have been made
from ii not, Of course, from the most
diluted portion near the top, but where 1t
thickens somewhat down below It is at
least as bad as the Missouri Most other
muddy streams settle sometimes, out its
upiqinous tide never clears It is unreason-
able to expect to find anything better than
mud cats and eels as the constant iuhabit-
ants Of such river And not alone is its
turbiditg disquslifying condition Tor lts
being the homo OF game fishes, but it ls
sboaling so that deep water i5 no longer to
| be found in it, except in its contracted cban-
mel: aud on the shallowy covered mud hats
the only food to be found is such as suits
only the baser sorts of fish, the dirty and
fool sorts that allow themselves to be strand
ed and picked up By 'coons' at low tide.
The shoslng has been going on Tor years
with increasing rapidity. The arm OF the
Potomac upon which the navy yard Is 10.
Gated. when viewed at high tide from the
~
water. So it is, a shetland hardly any
thing mole. There is channel in it, avail
able for light-iraught naval vessels still, but
the cDly safe time for stranger to attempt
Going through in On ordinary rowboat is at
low tide. when the tortuous thread OF water
daep enough for his passage will be clearly
outiiped along the northern edge of the great
meadow of waving eel grass. But men yet
in the prime of life remember when large
schoopers. heavily laden, used to tack to
and fro across where that meadow lies, and
sail far up beyond the navy yard to Bladen'
burp. which was thec quite port. Now,
there is no more water at Bladensburg than
tbe pecple in the neigborhood should use
for MITIGATION of the quality Of whisky sold
thereto say nothing Of washing. ln front
of Washington the main channel is 30 mar
row that an ordinary river steamboat lies
clear across it, and turning without getting
aground is very delicate operation. 1t
will not bs strange if, in few years hence,
Washington is left high and dry" as Bla-
densburg now is, and all her business re.
nuiripe water transportation, is transferred
further down steam, probably 10 AleXan
dria, The government engineers engaged
in waling and filling the Potomac flats eX-
meet that the contraction of the stream e!-
fected by their operations will give it q
stronger current, capable of securing out
and keeping clear this portion of the chan,
nal They may bs right. 1t is to be hoped
tbor M thew are. But the unexpected is
that which happens in dealing with water
conrses, much So engineers fancy they know
shout them, and what new flats and bars the
Posomac may take it into its thick head to
crease, n retaliation for their restriction oi
/ its liberty, remains to be seen: The cause
/ of the present condition of affairs is still OPP