THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 15_ 
Canada, on the other hand, has a special department of the fisheries, 
organized for obtaining the necessary data, and from which we can 
learn with great precision the number of vessels and boats, their ton- 
nage, the men employed, with the yield of the different kinds of fishing, 
in all the districts of the several provinces constituting the Dominion. 
The statistics of Newfoundland, which does not belong to the confeder- 
ation, are scarcely more valuable or reliable than those of the United 
States. It is much to be hoped that both countries will, in time, 
initiate and carry on a system more like that of Canada, from which, 
year by year, tabulated and final results may be obtained. 
Having been requested by the Secretary of State to proceed to Hali- 
fax and be present during the International Fishery Convention, I have 
been enabled, from the testimony adduced in regard to American fish 
and fisheries, and still more by personal inquiries of the witnesses, to 
obtain a great deal of information of much value, a portion of which 
will be embodied in the present report, and the remainder in an exten- 
sion of the subject hereafter.* 
The greater portion of the statistics employed in the present report 
is the result of special correspondence, initiated and maintained with 

*The treaty of Washington, made by the joint high commission in 1871, provided 
that nearly all the restrictions to the unimpeded use of the fisheries by the Americans, 
on the shores of the British provinces on the Atlantic coast, and by the subjects of 
these provinces in American waters as far south as the parallel of 39°, or Cape May, 
should be mutually conceded, and either party was tohave the privilege of exporting 
fish other than the products of the Great Lakes to the other country tree of duty; and 
that a commission should meet at Halifax, to consist of a commissioner and agent for 
each side, to determine what the commercial value respectively of these concessions 
amounted to, and if it were found that the privileges granted to the Americans were 
greater than those secured by the same treaty to the Dominion, a money value should 
be estimated for a twelve years’ period and paid by the United States. It was not 
supposed at the time that the balance might be on the other side. 
This convention was organized in obedience to the provisions of the treaty at Hali. 
fax on the 15th of June, and was represented by Hon. E. H. Kellogg on the part of the 
United States, and Sir Alexander T. Galt on the part of Great Britain, the third com- 
missioner, in accordance with the provision of the treaty, being Mr. Maurice Delfosse, 
the minister from Belgium to the United States. Mr. Dwight Foster, of Boston, was 
the agent for the American cause, and Mr. I’. C. Ford, of London, for the British. Mr. 
J. H. G. Bergne, of the foreign office, London, was chosen as secretary of the joint 
convention. 
Subsequently the selection of counsel was authorized to assist the agents in their 
labors, those for the United States being Mr. Richard H. Dana, Jr., of Boston, and Mr. 
William H. Trescot, of Washington ; the British counsel being one for each province, 
namely: Mr. Joseph Doutre, for Canada; Mr. 8. R. Thomson, for New Brunswick ; 
Mr. Wetherbe, for Nova Scotia; Mr. Davies, for Prince Edward Island ; and Mr. White- 
way, for Newfoundland. 
It is not my province to refer to the Hey and results of this convention except- 
ing so far as relates to the testimony available for the objects of the present report. 
Suffice it to say that a vast body cf testimony was taken on both sides, much of it 
contradictory, but leaving a residuum of well-established fact, and that this was 
‘supplemented by personal inquiries and special conference with the most intelligent 
Witnesses, 












