USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Historical sketches of the ten miles square forming the District of Columbia : with a picture of Washington, describing objects of general interest or curiosity at the metropolis of the Union. > Part 29
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We can't dismiss this subject without men- tioning another singular habit, belonging peculiar- ly to this fish, that of occasionally throwing itself to a considerable distance above water, to the height of at least eight or ten feet, so that in the pause between the ascent and descent, the whole fish is seen suspended in a horizontal position for a moment, in the air. They have sometimes fallen in this way, very much to the risque of those on board, in the boats plying at the Ferry in Georgetown, in this District : and an unfor- tunate occurrence took place during the revolu- tionary war, productive of a most serious acci- dent, on the North river. A sturgeon came down from one of these leaps into a ferry-boat while crossing that river, on the lap of an American officer, who was a passenger and setting in the
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stern, with such violence as to break his thigh and occasion his death.
SHAD AND HERRING.
The shad and herring are taken in very large quantities between the salts and the falls, on both sides of the Potomac in the Spring Season. The great Fisheries for herring are situated be- tween the mouth of the Aquia Creek, fifty miles below the City of Washington, and the lower line of the District of Columbia. The principal fisheries for shad are confined to yet stricter limits, between the mouth of Occoquan river on the right bank, and the shores just above Fort Washington, on the left bank of the river, the first about 35, and the last about 15 miles below the City of Washington. Many herring and shad are caught on the fresh and brackish water, as well below as above these points, but not in great numbers. Some of the finest shad in the river are taken in dip-nets, two or three at a time, at the foot of the Little Falls, where they seem to be selected, by their relative strength and ability to stem the rapid current at that place ; and this fish, by some remarkable agility, contrives to sur- mount considerable falls on the rivers it fre- quents. It certainly passes the lower falls of the Potomac, where the fall is thirty odd feet in the distance of three miles, and is found every year, though in small numbers, at the foot of the Great Falls, twelve miles above ; and it is equally true that they ascend the Falls of the Susque. hannah and its branches, and penetrate by these so far into the interior of the country as to be
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taken in some years at a place called the Cross- ings on a branch of the Juniata, within fifteen or twenty miles of the town of Bedford in Pennsyl- vania, and at least miles from tide water.
"The herring is not so enterprizing ; he is al- ways stopped by the first Falls. Of these-the herring-at the best landings on the Potomac, from one to three hundred thousand are often taken at a single draft of the seine, and of the shad from five to ten, or fifteen thousand at a draft are frequently drawn in These seines however are very capacious, from six to twelve hundred yards in length, and are hauled in by means of stout and long ropes, and of cap- stans fixed on the shore, and worked at much cx- pense, for the time being.
For shad, they are laid out in the channel of the river, at some places at a distance of from one mile to one mile and a half from the shore. The shad fishery being much the most valuable, and both shad and herring presenting themselves at the same season. The seines used at the best shad landings, are constructed of meshes so large as to let the herring through, because it is then found most profitable to avoid the loss of time that would necessarily be incurred by saving both, and separating one kind of fish from another. The whole season for taking the shad is but of six weeks ; to say from about the first of April to the middle of May, during which time the seines are worked with great assiduity, night and day, by regular watches of men alternately received at most of the landings. However, it is found that the greater quantity of fish is taken at particulas
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tides, and that the tide of flood is that which is most desirable, consequently it is on that particu- lar tide that the greater efforts are made.
From one hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand shad are taken in a season at each of these great landings, on the Potomac ; and dur- ing its activity, it presents quite a bustling and interesting scene. The weather is usually mild at that season of the year, and the forest leaves and flowers are beginning to expand ; the beach is extensive, of hard sand or gravel, and studded about with all the requisite buildings, to accom- modate its operations. There are lodging houses for the men, others for the superintendents and clerks-cook-houses, salting houses, store-houses, offices, &c. according to the number of persons usually employed, which may be from seventy- five to one hundred. A little fleet of river craft is all the time laying before the place, waiting turns, or plying to the market in the District of Columbia, loaded with these fine fish, fresh from the seine, for the consumption of its towns, or to supply the demand from the interior, by wagous that come to take them off, from the wharves of Alexandria, Washington and Georgetown. It is certain that greater quantities of shad-fish are taken in the Potomac than in any other river of the United States. Enough are taken in most of the long rivers of the Middle States on the Atlan- tic, to supply the demand for fresh fish during the season, but not as in the Potomac, in such quantities for curing. This fish is certainly, in fatness and in flavor, in its fresh state, inferior to few of the finest in this or any other country, and
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cured, it is agreed, that it compares with advan- tage with the best kind of salted fish, and yet such is its plenty and cheapness, at the time it appears among us, that it does not seem to be estimated as highly as it ought to be, by the lovers of good fare.
In the height of the season, a single shad weigh- ing from six to eight pounds, is sold in the mar- ket of the District for six cents, and by the hun- dred for from three to four dollars. It has been stated that the great shad-fisheries on the Poto- mac are limited to the small space of some twen- ty miles in extent on cach of its shores, and at a particular part of it. But it does not follow that the shores for this whole extent are equally favor- able for these fisheries ; far from it-there are but few positions on those shores even, where the shad is taken in abundance. There can be no doubt, from the fact, that in this part of the river they are taken in greater quantities ; that it is precisely these : Nature is in its most pro- per state to receive and cast their spawn, be- cause of its relative freedom on the one hand from salts, and from entire freshness on the other. The water at that season of the year, within the Falls over which the stream water is pour- ed into it, is not entirely fresh, but slightly brack- ish. It is about here then that the great bodies of the shad, which are sent from the sea for that purpose, stop to cast their spawn, and that they are detained for a shorter or a longer time, in ef- fecting their object, according to the temperature, of the superincumbent atmosphere, and until the waters in which they lie, may be sufficiently
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warmed to mature the spawn within them ; and during this preregination, as they have been found to congregate at particular points, because of cer- tain depths in the channel, or certain shoals, or for reasons beyond the ken of man. Yet the fact being known, he soon learned to profit of it, and the most contiguou- shore was used, wherefrom to spread the great net to haul them in. Much the same may be said of the herring fisheries, ex- cept that they extend over a greater portion of the river, and as they are not respectively as pro- fitable : as much expense is not gone to in pre- paring for and conducting them, as for the shad fisheries-but as they are more numerous, they furnish revenue to more proprietors, and food to more persons than the others.
The herring is not eaten at the best tables when fresh ; but cured, they are admired by all. keep remarkably well, and are most highly flavored when two years in salt. The Potomac river, as before remarked, can boast of the best and largest shad fisheries in the country. The advantages of the herring fisheries, she divides with some other rivers of the south, but is equalled in these by none, unless it be the Susquehanna, whose very large quantities of herring are annually drawn in and cured.
WATER FOWL.
The water fowl that frequent the Potomac River are migratory and only one species, the summer duck (the Anas Sponsa of Wilson) breed on its borders. These fowl are not as abundant as formerly, having been much disturb-
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ed of late years by the increase of that descrip- tion of gunners that hunt them for gain, and sup- ply increasing markets ; and particularly by the practice of firing on them in the night at their resting places ; yet they are very numerous, and of many kinds-as the swan, the wild goose, and a variety of wild ducks-the canvass back-the red-head shoveler-the black-head shoveler-the duck and mallard-the black duck-the blue wing teal-the green wing teal, and the widgeon. Of these, the five species first mentioned are what are called river fowl, frequenting only the fresh river; and the last five kinds are known by the name of marsh fowl, feeding principally in the marshes bordering on the river. Again. of the river fowl-the canvass back, the red head shoveler, and the black head shoveler are deno- minated drift fowl, from the circumstance of their collecting in vast bodies, when at rest, in the middle of the river, or feeding in deep water, obtaining their food by diving to the bottom. The bald face and the sprig tail, although they avoid the marshes, feed on the margin of the river in shallow water, as do the marsh fowl, by dipping their heads and necks under only ; and all these described in marsh fowl, are found feeding on the shores of the rivers occasionally, except the blue winged teal, which frequents the marshes exclu. sively, and only such as produce the wild oat, his favorite food. This duck too differs from all the others in the time and period of his visits to this quarter of the country; they are earlier made and of shorter duration : he comes about the first of September, and goes about the first of November:
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all the other kinds of ducks arrive with us, as the swan and geese, from the middle of October to the middle of November; and depart from about the first to the middle of March, As to the qualities for the table, of these fowl, the young swan is considered a great delicacy-while the old one is always hard, and without agreeable flavor. The wild goose is deemed much superior to the tame goose. The canvass back, it is known, stands unrivalled in the taste of the epicure, as the most delicious bird in this or any other coun- try. The red head shoveler, and the blue winged teal are but little inferior to it, in the estimation of connissours, in that way ; and of all the other kinds of these ducks, there is not one, when in good condition, that is not fine game. Most of them are found in abundance during the season from the immediate vicinity of the city of Wash- ington, down to the salts, and some of them are seen in both the salt and fresh water habitually or occasionally. The swan is not found nearer than about 30 miles below Washington : at the mouth of Occoquan, on the right bank of the river, is his highest feeding ground, which is precisely as we have before shown, the lowest spawning place of the white shad. Here, and for some 30 or 40 miles below, this noble bird is seen float- ing near the shores, in flocks of some two or three hundred, white as the driven snow, and from time to time, emitting fine sonorous, and occasionally melodious songs, so loud that they may be heard on a still evening two or three miles ; there are two kinds, so called from their respective notes- the one the trampeter, and the other the slooper ;
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Potomac Sporting.
the trumpeter is the largest -- and when at full size, will measure from five to six feet from the bill to the point of the toe, and from seven to eight fect from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other, when stretched and expanded. They are sagacious and wary, and depend more on the sight than on the sense of smell. On a neck near- lv three feet in length, they are enabled to elevate their head so as to see and distinguish with a quick and penetrating eye, objects at a great dis. tance, and by means of this same length of neck they feed on slack tides, by immersing, as is their habit, nearly all of the body-and throwing only their feet and tails out, in three or four feet water, and on the flatty shores they frequent, generally . beyond gun-shot ; the sportsman availing himself however of a peculiar propensity(of which we shall presently speak more particularly) prevailing with them and some of the other water fowl, often toll them within reach of their fire : the swan remain with us the whole winter, only shifting their ground in severe weather from the frozen to the open part of the river, and dropping down
into the salts where it is rarely frozen.
They
get into good condition soon after their arrival among us in autumn, and remain fat until toward spring-when a few weeks before their departure about the first of March, they gradually become thinner in flesh, and in the latter part of their so- journ here, are found so poor and light, that when shot, the gunner gets nothing fit for use but the feathers : whether this circumstance be owing to their having exhausted the means of subsistence at their feeding places, or that they are taught
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Water Fowl.
by him who rules the universe, in small as well as great things, thus by abstaining, to prepare them- selves for the long æriel voyage they are about to undertake, we pretend not to determine with cer- tainty, but we incline much to the latter opinion, since there would be nothing more wonderful in this, than in the fact, which is notorious, that they, by exercise, regularly and assiduously fit themselves for this continuous effort, to bear them- selves through the air to the distance of perhaps a thousand miles or leagues ; large flocks are seen every day rising from the river and taking a high position, flying out of sight and apparently moving in a circuit to a considerable distance, again returning at or near the same place, during the last two or three weeks of their stay. The wild goose is yet more wary and vigilant to keep out of harm's way than the swan. Hle too is sharp sighted, but depends much on his sense of smell for protection ; this is so well known to the hunts- man, that he never attempts, however he may be concealed from this bird, to approach it from the direction of the wind, since he would assuredly be scented before he could get within gun-shot, and left to lament his error, by the sudden flight of the whole flock. These geese toward spring often alight on the land and feed on the herbage in fields, and sometimes in such numbers as to do great injury to the wheat fields on the borders of the river. When so employed are difficult of approach, always taking a position at a distance from cover of any kind-and marching in a single and extended rank flanked by a watch goose at each extremity, which, while all the others are
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busily feeding and advancing with their heads down among the herbage, moves erect, keeping pace with his comrades, his eye and nose in a po- sition so as to convey to him the earliest intelli- gence of the presence of an enemy, though at a great distance ; and the moment such is perceiv- ed, it is communicated to the whole company by certain tones used for alarm, and immediately is responded to by a halt and the lifting of heads. and an instant flight, or a deliberate return to feeding takes place, according as the nature of the danger, after the examination, may be con- sidered. In the progress of this march the cen- tinels on the flanks are regularly relieved at in- tervals of some fifteen or twenty minutes, they falling carelessly into the feeding ranks, and others taking in their place the tour of duty on their march. In this arrayed state, they are at- tacked with great difficulty by the gunner : liis only chance of approach, is by means of a horse trained for the purpose-and much precaution is used in this petite guerre. He first, on perceiving the flock feeding in an extensive field-and on none other will they commit themselves-recon- noitres the local, and takes cognisance of the di- rection of the wind-he then having observed the course of march, enters the field at a point so re- mote, as at the same time to escape close scrutiny, and place his game in such relative situation to him, as that he has the wind, that is, be the air light or strong, it is to blow from them toward him, and not from him toward them. Next he is to estimate by the pace at which he finds the flock advancing, and by that he is to assume, un-
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Water Fowl.
der cover of the horse, at about what point, each moving in oblique lines, he will be brought with- in gun-shot of them. All this being settled in his mind, he commences his movement, first hav- ing taken off the saddle and tied up the bridle, so as to show as little as possible of it, he then, with his gun in one hand, and the other on the bridle, places himself on the side of the horse op- posite to the game, his legs placed behind the fore legs of the horse, and his body so bent as to be concealed by the shoulder and neck of the horse : in this constrained attitude, he urges his faithful coadjutor slowly in the direction fixed on, allow- ing him every now and then to stop and regale himself on the young wheat or the herbage over which he is making his way. The geese, accus- tomed to find the domestic animals, and none more common than the horse, pasturing on the fields they frequent-see in his approach no cause of alarm-and if due precaution has been taken to guard against the snuffing of the taint of man, which there is no question that nature has taught him readily to distinguish, he arrives in due time within the deadly reach, and manœvering a while to get a raking fire, presently deals out destruc.
tion on the thus circumvented troop. But to at- tain the object, great patience and endurance are necessary. Hours are consumed in taking and keeping the position with the requisite accuracy, as we have been assured by our informant, who has been an experienced sportsman in these re- gions, and often himself gone through the ordeal of wet feet, benumbed hands, bare head, and this curled position of the body for several hours on a 28
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Potomac Sporting.
stretch, watching under the neck of the horse, with snatched glance, the bearing of the centinels, ; and on the slightest indication of suspicion, set- ting the horse to feed, with his own limbs and body so disposed behind him as not to be exposed to the line of vision from the other quarter until suspicion was lulled again.
In the estimation of the true sportsman, the greater the difficulty in circumventing or over- coming his game, the greater the zest of success ; in no other way can all this voluntary subjection . to toil and suffering be accounted for.
Of all the duck tribe, the canvass back, as well on account of their vast numbers, as their supe- rior value, are to be placed in the first class. They breed, as is supposed, on the borders of the northern lakes or of Hudson bay ; they come to us periodically, as has been before said, from the north, and what is remarkable, have never been known to visit, unless rarely and in small num- bers, any other than the waters of the Chesa- peake-and of these, of late years, they have con- fined themselves entirely to the Potomac and the Susquehannah. Formerly they frequented also James river, but for the last thirty or forty years have deserted that river altogether ; they were called shelldrake there-as they were in those days in the Potomac the white back-on the Susque- hannah, the canvass back ; but latterly the name of canvass back has been given them on both these last named rivers, where they are now only known. It is entirely well ascertained that they feed on the bulbous root of a grass which grows on the flats in the fresh water of these rivers, be-
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cause it is always found in their craws, and which has very much the colour and the flavor of gar- den celery ; it is to this food, that is attributed, and we believe correctly, the peculiarly delicious taste of their flesh. It is said that during a re- markably hard winter some forty odd years ago, the wind having prevailed a long time from the north-west, and blown so much of the water from the flats of James river, that it froze to the bot- tom, inclosing the long tops of this grass so close- ly in the ice, that when it broke up and was floated off' in the spring, it tore the whole of it up by the roots and took it away-and that from that time to the present, the canvass back duck ceased to make his annual visit to that river : and it is added, that about the same time the carp-fish ceased to frequent it, and indeed it is affirmed, that this fish is only found in the rivers, to which that duck resorts. If this really be so, it must be, that both are en- ticed by the same kind of food, or that the grass in question, by some other quality, suits the pur- poses of the carp fish. The canvass back feeds in from 6 to 10 feet water; he is an expert diver, and with great strength and agility, seizing it probably near the bottom, eradicates the grass, brings it up root and branch to the surface, where he bites off the root, (which is bulbous, white and about four tenths of an inch across, and six tenths long,) and cating that only, leaves the long her- baceous part to float on the water. Very fre- quently there are found feeding among these fowl, the bald fall duck; as before noticed, he has not the power of diving entirely under water in search of his food, aud here he is employed in
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Potomac Sporting.
searching the rising of the canvass back; and in snatching the grass from his grasp, much to his annoyance, and though the bald face is the small- er duck, as he is sprightly and active, he often succeeds to get hold before the other has done more than put his bill above water, and to obtain and make off with the prize, (precious part, the root and all, ) but generally he contents himself with swimming about among the industrious di- vers, and devouring their leavings, the grassy part of the plant. The favorite pasture ground of the canvass back on the Potomac, is between Craney Island, about twenty-five miles below Washington, and Annalostan Island, within the District of Columbia,+ of late years, because of the increase of hunters constantly in the pursuit, and the quantity of craft flying, they have been in a great measure driven from the upper beds of their favorite food, and are seldom, but in small numbers, seen above the bridge, across the river at Washington. But a little lower down, and where the river becomes wider, when at rest at night, or when they have retired from feeding during the day, they ride in the midst of it, in such numbers as literally to cover acres of water. When they resort to the flats for feeding, they seperate in a degree, but, yet are found thus em- ployed, in flocks of many hundreds, and some- times thousands. Until within the last five and twenty years, this game was obtained in no other
"When this part of the river is congealed, usually in Janus- ry, they are driven by the ice lower down, to the brackish or salt water, and return on its dissolution towards spring, but never in such condition, or with such good flavor; nor do they recover these after such an absence, during that season
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way than by shots from the land, and it was, therefore, an object of great interest and sport with the amateur-gunners.
'The positions opposite to their feeding places were known, slight blinds of brush wood were thrown up on the edges of the banks, previ- ous to their arrival in the fall, of four or five feet height, under cover of which. in a stooping pos- ture, the sportsman can reach the desired point undiscovered by the sight, (for it happens that this bird is not like some of its tribe, as the mal- Jard and others, armed with a strong sense of smell) and here posted, if one of skill and patience in his vocation, he waits often no inconsiderable time for the proper occasion to give the greater effect to his fire. Sometimes when the tide makes higher, deepening the water near the bank, and so inducing the ducks to run closer in, but must ge- nerally foregoing fair opportunities during every few minutes, to fire on detatched parties, small in number, until a good portion of the flock has placed itself well huddled together, in the desir- ed position. The habit of these ducks, which, as we have said, are most expert divers, is when feeding in flocks near the bank, to take their course across the shoal from the outer to the in- ner part of it, beginning on the outer part where the water is deepest, and progressing inwards with great bustle and activity, each darting down head foremost with much velocity, and presently returning to the surface with the sought morsel in its bill, despatching this, and repeating (all except a certain number of marsh ducks) inces- santly the operation presenting 2 constant and
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