Page:Brunswick 100 Years of Memories.pdf/65

CHAPTER 5

River & Canal (an industry) without adequate protection," states the Maryland Annual Report of 1876.

POTOMAC RIVER (An abstract of information pertaining to the Potomac Waters at Brunswick, taken from Historical Informa-

THE "EEL POT"

tion of Maryland Commission of Fisheries with Some Notes on Game, gathered by Al Powell, who was

One device particularly referred to was the "eel pot" or "fish trap," or "fish pot." This was used by the Indians, and is still used by primitive peoples of some South Pacific islands. This structure was probably made of sticks placed so that once inside, the fish could hardly escape. Imitated and modified by the white man, the trap became accepted general use in inland waters of the area. The trap had long arms in the middle of the stream in an upward direction on either side toward the shore and gathered in every living creature within the current. Citizens of Maryland largely abandoned their use on the Potomac River. Yet Maryland did not consider the eel pot destructive, for we had only fall fish, suckers, yellow catfish, and minnows above the falls; few bass or game fish were trapped or taken. There were no migratory fish from the Chesapeake Bay. Pennsylvania Commission asked Maryland to suppress the device "in the best interests of both states," because of the wanton destruction of fish of nearly all kinds. Public clamor made the fish pot illegal, according to the Maryland Annual Report of

Superintendent of Hatcheries from 1922 to 1969, or 47 years.) The settlement at Brunswick occurred because of the felicitous intersection of a north-south land route and the Potomac River. Shortly after 1700 the Swiss prospector Louis Michel traveled the Potomac River from the falls to the mouth of the Shenandoah, and so passed the very shore of our town. He also built fish traps among the Conoy Islands. As early settlers were pushing their way into Virginia after landing in Philadelphia and settling in the southern Pennsylvania area, many stopped in what is now Frederick County and some set their roots at the Potomac Crossing, or Buffalo Wallow (now Brunswick). As a new country was being born, the Compact of 1785 gave citizens of Virginia access to the fishery resources in the Potomac. On January 14, 1926, a Court of Appeals of Maryland decision in Case 91 ruled that the Compact of 1785 with Virginia did not apply above the tidewater on the Potomac River. The Maryland boundary is the south side of the Potomac. The waters of Maryland, in the early settlement, fairly teemed with fish and the fact that settlements were all made on the shores attested to the value placed by our forefathers upon this food product.

1927. However, evidence of the eel pots remains in Frederick County, especially in the Potomac. On the Virginia side south of Heaters Island there remain three such traps and may well be the ones Louis Michel referred to, as related in The Potomac, by Frederick Gutheim.

A COMMISSION ON FISHERIES

RAFTS AND BOATS ON THE POTOMAC

In 1874, a Maryland Commission of Fisheries was established by law. "Every device (is) used to catch all fish and to such an extent that in time our waters (have been) well nigh depleted .... This is

By 1785 James Rumsey was clearing the Potomac of boulders and other obstructions that would impair the navigation of square-end boats

66