VI REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



and investigations which have proved of great service in the inquiry 

 intrusted to my charge. 



In the course of the summer I visited the British provinces, passing 

 through Saint John, Digby, Annapolis, Halifax, Pictou, Prince Edward 

 Island, Shediac, and Fredericton, with a view of ascertaining the present 

 condition of the fisheries, the nature of the regulations. concerning them, 

 as well as the various methods for carrying them on, and I am particu- 

 larly indebted for valuable assistance and information to Mr. William 

 Jack, of Saint John ; to Dr. J. B. Gilpin and Mr. J. Matthew Jones, of 

 Halifax ; and to Mr. Dunn, the United States consul, and Mr. J. C. Hall, 

 merchant of Charlottetown. 



My inquiries in reference to the herring and other fisheries of the 

 coast would not have been complete without a visit to Grand Manan, 

 and especially, the southern extremity", known as Southern Head, and 

 well know^n to be the great spawning-ground of the majority of the 

 herring entering the Bay of Fundy. With the aid of a letter from Mr. 

 William F. Whitcher, the Commissioner of Fisheries at Ottawa, to Mr. 

 Walter B. McLaughlin, in charge of the spawning-grounds, I was 

 enabled to obtain a great amount of very valuable information in 

 regard to this interesting locality. To Mr. Simeon F. Cheney, of 

 Nantucket Island, Grand Manan, I am also much indebted for services 

 rendered. 



The fact that particular portions of our sea-coast are frequented by 

 the herring during their spawning-season, while others, apparently 

 equally eligible, remain nnvisited by them, induced me to undertake a 

 careful investigation of ocean temperatures ; and, with the assistance of 

 Captain Hodgden, of the revenue-cutter, I was enabled to secure, 

 through the use of the Casella-Miller deep-sea thermometer, many 

 records of the temperature of the bottom waters at dilferent i^arts of the 

 Bay of Fundy, as well as of the surface. These are considered of very 

 great importance in solviug the various problems referred to. * 



*A movement in the same direction was subsequently undertaken by the Scottish 

 Meteorological Society, having for its object the determination of the question as 

 to how meteorological conditions of air and water influence the herring-fishery, an 

 industry of the first importance to the inhabitants of Scotland; the inquiry having 

 been suggested by the Marquis 'of Tweeddale, president of the society, in a letter 

 transmitted on the 30th of January, 1873. 



A committee was appointed, and on the 2d of July reported the progress made, 

 when, although no very positive results were anflounced, enough was adduced 

 to show the eminent propriety of the investigation and the probability of attaining 

 important generalizations. (Journal of the society, July, 1873, 60.) 



The inquiry was restricted at first to the east coast of Scotland, and to pond-fishing 

 districts therein, viz, Wick, Buckie, Peterhead, and Eyemouth, the last including the 

 fishing-ports of Dunbar and Eyemouth, Berwick, and North Sunderland. Copies of 

 the weekly returns sent to the fishery-board from these districts during July to Sep- 

 tember, the season of the herring-fishing for that part of Great Britain, for six years, 

 beginning with 1867 and ending with 1872, giving the catch per week, the number of 



