Virginia 



difficulty; whence to the great falls, I have been told, 

 a navigation might easily be effected: so that this 

 river seems to promise to be of as great consequence 

 as any in North America. 



In all these rivers the tide flows as far as the falls, 

 and at Alexandria it rises between two and three 

 feet. They discharge themselves into Chesapeake 

 Bay, one of the finest in the world, which runs a great 

 way up the country into Maryland; is from ten to 

 twenty miles broad; navigable near a hundred 

 leagues for vessels of almost any burden; and re- 

 ceives into its bosom at least twenty great rivers. 



These waters are stored with incredible quantities 

 of fish, such as sheeps-heads, rock-fish, drums, white 

 perch, herrings, oysters, crabs, and several other 

 sorts. Sturgeon and shad are in such prodigious 

 numbers, that one day, within the space of two miles 

 only, some gentlemen in canoes, caught above 600 

 of the former with hooks, which they let down to the 

 bottom, and drew up at a venture when they per- 

 ceived them to rub against a fish; and of the latter 

 above 5,000 have been caught at one single haul of 

 the seine. 



In the mountains there are very rich veins of ore; 

 some mines having been already opened which turn 

 to great account; particularly Spotswood's iron 

 mines* upon the Rappahannock, out of which they 

 smelt annually above six hundred ton: and one of 



* See Note V. 



[41] 



