BRITISH, COLONIAL, AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 213 



ing ground, or are engaged in illicit trade, is a question of great im- 

 portance at present. As to smuggling, perhaps that trade will never 

 be entirely abolished; but much might be done if the officers and 

 magistrates on shore would take sufficient interest to put down this 

 trade. Persons commissioned on board of vessels have not the oppor- 

 tunity of detecting these things as those on shore, as vessels so com- 

 missioned are generally watched. 



The course to be pursued to prevent foreign vessels from tres- 

 passing on the grounds reserved for British subjects, requires more 

 talent and experience than I have, to decide. However, with the 

 information which I have received, and the little experience I have, 

 it appears that it would take a larger amount than the legislature of 

 Nova Scotia would grant for the protection of the fisheries, when we 

 take into consideration the extent of the coast on Nova Scotia and 

 Cape Breton, which, in the latter part of the season, is completely 

 lined with American vessels, from Cape Gaspe to Cape North, in 

 Cape Breton. These vessels I have been informed, often fish within 

 half a mile from shore, paying little or no regard to the limits stated 

 in the national convention. In fact the day on which I seized the 

 " Tiber" there were sixty or seventy sail in sight, which were nearly 

 all within limits ; but as these are fast sailing vessels, if they once get 

 the start, and are out of gunshot, they feel quite secure. Were the 

 British Colonies united, or was each colony equally interested in the 

 fisheries, and would all come forward to protect the fisheries, it 

 would be of great consequence. The coast cannot be protected from 

 encroachment by foreigners, by sailing vessels, unless there are three 

 or four in number. 



A small steam vessel would likely be of great service to prevent for- 

 eigners from encroaching, but as the fishermen are generally fitted 

 with good glasses, it is not likely a steam vessel would take them in 

 the act of fishing within the limits. 



In the convention between the two nations, the words " curing 

 fish " and " preparing the fish," it appears to me to require some 

 further explanation; on the former the American fishermen believe 

 the object was to prevent them curing or drying codfish on shore, as 

 the hook mackerel fishing was not practised when that convention 

 was made. I have seen instances where American vessels had been 

 fishing the whole of the day, towards evening a gale springing up, 

 they were forced to run for a harbor with fifty or sixty barrels of 

 fresh mackarel on deck, and if salting those fish is understood curing 

 fish, which I think is the only way mackarel can be cured, under 

 those circumstances these people must cast their fish into the sea 

 igain, or run the risk of having the vessel and cargo seized. The 

 words " preparing the fish," may be construed to what it was not 

 intended. 



When cruising in the schooner Telegraph last fall, being in little 

 Canso, an American vessel lay near; I discovered the men busily 

 employed on deck, I manned my boat and boarded her ; I found them 

 employed grinding bait for mackerel ; the captain appeared quite 

 innocent, and said he had been so careful he had not taken a lobster 

 while in the harbor. This might be understood preparing to fish. 



That part of the convention which provides that American fisher- 

 men shall be admitted to enter the bays and harbors in the British 

 colonies, for the purpose of shelter and repairing damages therein, 



