642 HISTORYeAND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
1795. 
April 2: At night caught a few shad; the first this season. 
May 18: Declined hauling my seine, altho’ what few are caught are tolerable good. ‘There have been the 
fewest and smallest shad caught this season of any within my remembrance. - 
Swift Islands are about 1 mile above Midway Mills and 102 miles above Richmond, via James 
River as it meanders. 
Wood's Island, now known as Norwood Island, 10 miles above Richmond, via James River as 
it meanders, the largest and uppermost of the Swift Islands, containing 9 acres, where there was 
a most excellent fishery, was granted to Moses Ray, by patent bearing date December 15, 1749. 
Moses Ray died in 1766, and Col. William Cabell, sr., administered on his estate, and bought the 
said fishery from the heirs in October, 1784. 
Buffalo Island, containing 40 acres, was patented by Dr. William Cabell in 1738, and deeded to 
his oldest son Col. William Cabell, of Union Hill, in 1763, first called Buffalo Island, then Wood’s 
Island then Upper Fishery, then Hughes Island, and now Norwood Island. 
From a memorandum of Col. William Cabell, jr. (the son of Col. William Cabell, sr., of Union 
Hill), who had recently married and had just begun to keep house : 
1787. 
March 24: 40 white shad were taken at one haul at the Swift Islands. March 28: Received 20 white shad from 
Swift Island fishery. March 30: Received 26 white shad from Swift Island fishery. 
April 1: Received 51 white shad from Swift Island fishery. April5: Received 32 white shad from Swift Island 
fishery. April 9: Received 37 white shad from Swift Island fishery. April 10: Received 30 white shad from Swift 
Island fishery. April 13: Received 15 white shad of my father. April 14: Received 50 shad, 39 of which I sent up to 
my quarter. April24: Received 20 white shad of my father. April 25: Received 19 white shad of my father. April 
28: Received 49 white shad of my father. - 
May 9: Received 20 white shad of my father. 
1788. 
April 4: Began to catch white shad. 
From Col. William Cabell sr’s. account books I find that fresh shad sold at 2 to 4 pence each, 
betore and after the revolution. During the war prices varied with the currency. 
Pickled shad in barrels, containing from 150 to 200 shad, sold for about $6 to $9 a barrel. 
Very few shad, fresh or pickled, were sold, but very many were given away. 
3. YORK RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 
The York River is the common estuary of the Pamunkey and Mattapony Rivers, which have 
their confluence at West Point, about 20 miles west of Yorktown and Gloucester Point. 
The area of the hydrographic basin drained by the tributaries of the Mattapony and Pa- 
munkey is small compared with that of any of the principal rivers of the State; yet, in conse- 
quence of not being obstructed for some distance above the head of tide, the actual spawning area 
for shad and herring is greater than in the James, the Rappahannock, or even in the Potomac. 
The fact that these waters have been able to maintain a respectable shad fishery, in spite of the 
excessive drafts made upon them, clearly illustrates the disastrous influences exerted upon the 
fisheries of our principal rivers by the obstructions which restrict the migrations of the shad and 
herring (alewife) to the tidal areas. 
Even in these rivers there has been a steady decrease in the value and the production of these 
fisheries. The herring fishery no longer exists. Probably 250,000 to 300,000 are taken in gill- 
nets for local consumption. Formerly with a haul-seine, upon a single tide, over 100,000 have 
