DESPATCHES, REPOETS, CORRESPONDENCE. ETC. 337 



culty of defining a limit, and the divisions proposed are those which 

 agree most nearly with the gradations of marine climate which 

 govern the movements of these fish. 



The destruction of these migratory fish before the spawning season 

 must result in the depletion of the fishery, and if it is desired to pre- 

 vent this destruction by wholesale, the abolition of the use of the 

 purse seine in the above limits, and for the periods mentioned, is the 

 minimum of protection that must be insisted on; for it is a fact, 

 capable of demonstration quite simply, that spawning or gravid fish 

 arc taken on the Nova Scotian coast up till 1st. July, and though the 

 spawning season in the southern part of the Gulf is pretty well over 

 by 20th. July in an average year, we have in these waters so much 

 fluctuation in marine climate that there is great variation in the 

 period of spawning. I have therefore fixed on 1st. August as the 

 date of commencement of the purse seining, to allow for a late season 

 and to cover the more northerly portions of these waters where the 

 spawning season is later. 



Many of the masters of the United States fishing vessels admit that 

 the unrestrained use of the purse seine has ruined the mackerel fish- 

 ery, but some of them being part owners of vessels and gear are 

 indisposed to support a measure, the passage of which would practi- 

 cally wipe out a portion of their capital for a time. In Canada the 

 sum invested in these seines is comparatively small, and I do not 

 think that there would be any real opposition from Canadians to the 

 enactment of the proposed laws for the protection of the mackerel. 

 In fact, I consider that continued comparative productiveness of the 

 Canadian mackerel fishing grounds as compared with those on the 

 New England coasts is largely due (1) to the protection afforded to 

 fishermen, by securing the inshore fishing grounds from molestation 

 and continual harassment by a large fleet of foreign fishermen, thus 

 affording the fish an area in which to spawn comparatively undis- 

 turbed; and (2) to the fact that Canadian fishermen have not so 

 extensively adopted the use of the purse seine as a means of capture. 



One of the best arguments in favour of the abolition of the purse 

 seine is that many of the most experienced fishermen are already 

 discarding the use of it, and all are relegating it to a secondary 

 place in their operations. In the past, the mackerel schooner stood 

 off and on, with one, two, or even three men at the masthead, looking 

 for fish, and when a school was sighted the seine boat was manned 

 and the school surrounded; then, after the seine was pursed the 

 schooner sailed up alongside the boat. To-day the modus operandi 

 is entirely changed. The vessel now carries many barrels of bait, 

 herrings, porgies and clams; these are ground up in a mill and mixed 

 with water to the consistency of thin porridge; the vessel still carries 

 a man at the masthead, but instead of sailing to and fro, she is al- 

 lowed to drift slowly over the surface of the sea and the toll bait is 

 constantly thrown over, two or three men meanwhile have their lines 

 over the side, and if the fish rise to the bait and are taken on the 

 hooks, all hands immediately get their lines over, and if the fish show 

 in any number the bait is kept going over steadily, the seine boat is 

 manned and the seine quietly swept round both vessels and fish, and 

 when the net is pursed up those left on board run the head of the jib 

 up, the vessel pays off and rides easily and harmlessly over the cork 

 rope, the haul occasionally amounting to a few barrels; but all the 



