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Research History Genealogy Speakers |
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SEE ALSO: • Encyclopedia of Norfolk, Virginia: History & Geography
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St. Méry on Norfolk's Fish (For more Norfolk geography tidbits, click here.) Writing in the 1790s of his travels through Norfolk, Frenchman Moreau de St. Méry speaks of plentiful fish and wildlife: "…what sells for an absurdly low price in Norfolk is fish. A weakfish weighing more than  20 pounds costs only 4 or 5 francs, and sometimes one that weighs three times as much may be purchased for 1 dollar, or 5 francs, 10 sous. Drumfish are also cheap. Sturgeon, which here weigh up to 60 pounds, cost 6 French sous a pound, and one pays no more for little cod, which are sold alive and are delicious eating. Shad are innumerable. There are also perch, sea hog, herring, sole, plaice, flounder, mullet, trout, blackfish, eels, the cofferfish, the garfish, etc. In a word, fish are so abundant that the police are frequently obliged to order unsold fish to be thrown into the sea...."
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