REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXIII 



Again, portions of the vessel's equipment, such as anchors, cables, fishing-boats, and 

 apparatus of capture, are liable to be lost during stormy weather, and it is a great 

 convenience to be able to purchase new material in the nearest Provincial port rather 

 than to incur the loss which must be sustained, provided (he vessel is obliged to return 

 to American markets to purchase them. This is true both in the fisheries carried on 

 near the land and also in those on the more distant fishing grounds. This season much 

 inconveuience was experienced by many of the vessels engaged in the mackerel fishery 

 from the tearing of their seines and the loss of (heir seine-boats iu heavy weather, 

 owing to the refusal of certain Canadian officials to allow them to land their seines for 

 purposes of repair or to buy new boats for continuing their fishing operations. Many 

 of them were provided with two boats, and some carried two seiues to guard against 

 such contingencies, but in a number of cases vessels so equipped were equally incon- 

 venienced with the others. 



The only occasion that vessels would have for entering the harbor, due to the 

 methods of preserving fish, would be for the purpose of obtaining either salt, barrels, 

 or ice. It sometimes happens that the salt is damaged by a leak in the vessel, or that 

 a detention beyond the expected time causes the melting of the ice, and it is impor- 

 tant that our fishermen should be permitted to purchase additional quantities in 

 Canadian ports, rather than run the risk of losing the entire cargo of fish or of return- 

 ing with only a partial trip. The present interpretation given to the treaty of 1818 

 by the Canadian authorities, while it might allow a leaking vessel to enter a port for 

 repairs, would not allow it to replace the salt that might have been rendered worth- 

 less by the leak. 



The privilege of lauding cargoes of fish at Provincial ports for shipment to the 

 United States is of considerable importance to vessels engaged in the mackerel fishery, 

 but of little value to those employed in the capture of other species. Vessels are thus 

 enabled to land trips for shipment and to immediately resume their fishing operations, 

 thus saving the two to lour weeks necessary for making the homeward and return 

 passage; but with the privilege of transshipping cargoes should bo coupled that of 

 refitting at the port where the lish are landed, otherwise the vessel might be short of 

 provisions or apparatus, which would render it impossible for it to continue its fish- 

 ing operations. 



Most of the vessels from Gloucester, Mass.. engaged in the off-shore cod fisheries 

 have made a practice of obtaining fresh bait iu Provincial ports; but a majority of 

 vessels similarly employed from other places carry salt bait, thus being entirely in- 

 dependent of the Canadian supply. The chief difference between the two classes is 

 that the Gloucester vessels fish with trawls, while the crews of most of the other 

 vessels catch their fish with hand-lines. It is claimed by certain of the Gloucester 

 fleet that they get more aud larger fish by the use of fresh bait, but the fishermen 

 from other ports have found their .own methods profitable aud have not felt disposed 

 to follow Gloucester's example even when they had free access to Canadiau ports for 

 the purpose of obtaining bait. 



A few of the vessel-owners in Gloucester have long maintained that the time lost 

 in going to and from Provincial ports to secure bait, and the temporary demorali- 

 zation of the crews resulting from a visit to these ports more than offset any ad- 

 vantages that are to be derived by the use of fresh bait, and urge that salt bait would 

 be found, on the whole, more profitable ; but as a considerable percentage of the 

 men employed on the vessels have families or relatives in the Provinces, they have 

 continued to urge upon the owners the necessity of obtaining bait in these localities, 

 and it has been difficult to dissuade them. After the experience of the present year 

 quite a number of other Gloucester owners and fishermen as well are convinced that 

 it is on the whole better to substitute salt bait than to continue the old practice of 

 leaving the Banks in the midst of the fishing season to obtain other kinds in the Prov- 

 inces. That this opinion is shared by the Nova Scotia fishermen is proven by the fact 

 that for some years they have been in the habit of purchasing large quantities of salt 



