XXII REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
on Canadian soil, now that the vessels are large enough to readily carry the undried 
fish, is no longer of any advantage whatever to our fishermen. 
Formerly vessels employed in the mackerel fisheries were provided only with hand- 
lines, and the crews caught the fish from the vessel’s deck. When fishing in this way 
they found it desirable to grind up fish and clams, which they threw in large quanti- 
ties into the water to attract the mackerel and keep them in the vicinity of the vessel. 
The best results were then obtained by fishing in shoal water, as the bait thrown 
overboard could not sink to any great depth, and the entire body of fish were thus 
kept near the surface, where they were within reach of the hook and line. About 
1,865 purse-seines were introduced for the capture of mackerel, and in a few years they 
came to be generally adopted by vessels employed in the mackerel fishery. These are 
fished to best advantage at some distance from the shore, and the fishermen usually 
ayoid shoal water, as the seines are liable to be ruined when set in depths where the 
lead lines may chance to come in contact with the bottom. 
During earlier years the halibut fishery in the vicinity of Provincial shores was of 
some slight importance to the American fishermen, but this has been confined wholly 
to deep water, many miles from land, since 1875. 
The shore herring fisheries, and the occasional capture of certain species for bait, 
were also at one time of value to fishermen from the United States; but such a de- 
cided opposition on the part of the resident Provincial fishermen was manifested to 
the exercise of the privilege of taking fish, accorded by the Treaty of Washington, 
that the practice of catching their own supply was practically abandoned, and the 
fishermen have almost without exception, since the well-known difficulty at Fortune 
Bay, Newfoundland, about ten years ago, purchased their cargoes of herring from the 
55 ene . 
local fishermen, and, where these had no suitable apparatus forobtaining the same, 
have carried their own apparatus and hired the provincial fishermen to manipulate it. 
The mackerel is, then, the only species of any importance visiting Provincial 
waters which American fishermen at present desire to catch within 3 miles of the 
shore, or indeed within a much greater distance. This is practically the only Pro- 
vincial shore fishery in which our fishermen have had any considerable interest since 
the ratification of the Treaty of Washington, as the great majority of our vessels em- 
ployed in other fisheries on the banks off the Provincial coast seldom fish nearer than 
25 or 30 miles from land, and a majority of them secure their cargoes from 100 to 200 
miles from shore. 
At the present time the advantage to be derived from any privilege of fishing within 
3 miles of the Canadian coasts, even for mackerel, is comparatively insignificant, as 
the results of the season which has just closed show conclusively that our vessels 
which have fished wholly outside of the 3-mile limit have done fully as well as the 
Canadian vessels which have had the opportunity of fishing everywhere, without re- 
striction as to distance from shore. 
Question 3. In the method of fishing on that open sea, or in those open bays, of 
preserving the catch and sending it to our ports for a market now desirable for our 
American fishermen, of what importance is the right to enter, in a commercial way, 
British colonial ports in the neighborhood? 
The nature of the occupation of fishing, when the size of the vessel is considered, 
renders it impossible for a fishing vessel to provide against all contingencies. On 
leaving the home ports the vessels are ordinarily provided with what is supposed to 
be a full outfit of provisions and apparatus, but a scarcity of fish may render it de- 
sirable that it should remain on the fishing grounds longer than was expected, or it 
may be delayed by head-winds, storms, or floating ice, until the supply of provisions 
or water is exhausted. It then becomes convenient, in order to prevent actual suffer- 
ing, that the vessel should make a harbor and obtain additional quantities. Instances 
have occurred during the present year when vessels short of provisions have attempted 
to reach one of our own ports to obtain a supply rather than incur the risk of seizure 
by entering those of Canada for that purpose. 

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