Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/195

 prize by slipping a noose over its tail and dragging it ashore.

The Indian weir consisted of a hedge of small sticks uniform in size, or of reeds not larger than the thumb; and these were formed into a stable and impenetrable barrier by strips of oak carefully run crosswise in the shape of wickerwork. One end of this artificial hedge was pitched above water mark, while the other was attached to a large post in the middle of the stream at a point where it was frequently eight or ten fathoms in depth. Near the centre of the hedge there was a large opening leading into a pen constructed of the same wickerwork, and this in turn led into another, the series ending in an enclosure from which it was impossible for the fish after entering to escape. The largest contrivances of this kind were placed at the entrances to the principal rivers. When Smith and his companions sailed into the mouth of the Nansemond for the purpose of exploring its course, they found six or seven Indians actively employed in erecting a weir. The aborigines also threw a hedge across a small stream at high tide, so that when the water had fallen they could at their ease take out the fish which had been cut off from return. There was still another method; at the falls in the rivers, loose dams of stones were built through which the great body of water was left to pass in sluices, and at the mouth of each sluice a pot of reeds, fashioned like a cone and containing a number of chambers, was placed. A fish driven into this trap by the rush of water found it impossible to escape.