... we got good store of mussels and oysters, which lay on the ground as thicke as stones. Wee opened some, and found in many of them pearles. The Jamestown planters who wrote accounts of the new colony commented on the abundance and variety of fish and shellfish in the rivers and creeks near the "capital citty." It seems rather surprising, therefore, that so many colonists died during the first autumn "of meere famine," as reported by Percy, when the James River teemed with fish, oysters, and crabs. Captain Gabriel Archer, Gentleman, mentioned a seven foot sturgeon which was caught on June 13, 1607: "Our Admiralls men gatt a sturgeon of 7 foote long which Captayne Newport gave us." George Percy commented on the excellence of the sturgeon in the James River: [Illustration: _Photo courtesy National Park Service._ Fishhooks, Fish-gigs, Lead Net-Weights The artifacts shown were excavated at Jamestown. These objects and many others found, are reminders of a day when fish and shellfish lived in abundance in every creek, river, and bay, in Tidewater Virginia.] There are many branches of this river, which runne flowing through the woods with great plentie of fish of all kindes; as for sturgeon, all the world cannot be compared to it.... John Smith and William Strachey also listed the delicious and palatable varieties of fish and shellfish which were found in Virginia waters, revealing that seafood was an important source of food for the colonists. At times, especially during the early years, it was one of the main sources. [Illustration: Repairing Nets At Jamestown About 1620 _Conjectural sketch_ Seafood was an important food for the early colonists. At times, especially during the first years of the settlement, it was one of the main foodstuffs.] BREWING One seventeenth century building unearthed at Jamestown appears to have been used as a place where beer, ale, brandy, and other alcoholic beverages were made. Nearby were found pieces of lead, which may have been part of a lead cistern which held barley, and inside the building were three brick ovens, which may have been used for drying malt. A handle from a copper kettle was discovered near one of the ovens, and pieces of copper and lead pipes were recovered not far from the building. Historical objects excavated near the site revealed that the structure was used between 1625 and 1660. A 1685 account relating to brewing could very well refer to a Jamestown establishment where beer and other beverages were made nearly 300 years ago: Where wine is not to be had they drink beer, which is brewed of malt and hops, in a caldron. Afterwards it is powred into vatts, and when it is cold, it is carried in soes [wooden pails], into the cellar and is put into vessels. Brandy-wine, extracted by the power of heat from dregs of wine in a pan, over which a limbeck [an apparatus used in distillation] is placed, droppeth thorow a pipe into a glass.