1102 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



No. 8. 



I, MBDDIE GALLANT, of Big Mimnigash, in Prince County, in Prince 

 Edward Island, fisherman and fish dealer, make oath and say : 



1. That I have been engaged in fishing for the last twelve years. I 

 have fished myself entirely from boats. I also owned a vessel called 

 the " Break-of-day," for two years engaged in fishing. I am acquainted 

 with the fishing grounds from this part of the island round Tignish, 

 New London, Rustico, and nearly round to the east point of this island. 

 I have also been in the herring fishing at the Magdalen Islands. 



2. That there about two hundred and forty boats now engaged in fish- 

 ing between Campbellton, on this shore, and the North Cape of this isl- 

 and a distance of about twenty-two miles. From the North Cape to 

 Cape Kildare there are at least one hundred and sixty boats engaged in 

 fishing. From Kildare Cape to Cascumpec Harbor there are at least 

 eighty boats engaged in fishing. 



3. In the last five years the number of boats engaged in fishing in the 

 above distances has at least doubled. At this run alone there has been 

 a very great increase. Eight years ago there were only eight boats 

 belonging to this run, now there are forty-five. The boats are twice as 

 good in material, fishing outfit, in sailing, in equipment, in rigging, and 

 in every way, as they were five years ago. There is a great deal more 

 money invested in fishing now than there was. Nearly every one is now 

 going into the business about here. The boats, large and small together, 

 take crews of about three men each. That is besides the men employed 

 at the stages about the fish, who are a considerable number. 



4. The reasons for the increase in the number of boats and in the 

 capital invested in the business are, that people find it pays. It has 

 always, even in the worst years, paid us here. Another reason is that 

 people are getting so numerous that they have to go into fishing as a 

 means of support. They cannot get employment in other ways, and 

 there is not enough land for them, and they are always able to make 

 good wages. I never yet knew a year when a man would not make 

 good wages if he stuck to the fishing. When I was fishing myself in a 

 small boat I used to make from fifty to sixty dollars a month off my own 

 line. 



5. That there is a class of men springing up who are entirely devoted 

 to fishing, and make their living by it and by nothing else. This class 

 has only begun to come on within the last few years. 



6. That in the summer of 1874, which was a good fishing year, my own 

 boats, four in number, caught eleven hundred barrels of mackerel, or 

 two hundred and seventy-five barrels each boat. One man in one of 

 these boats caught twenty-six thousand three hundred mackerel on his 

 own line, and the lowest number caught by any fisherman on board my 

 boats was about seventeen thousand mackerel. Three of those boats 

 carried three hands each, and the fourth boat carried four hands. In 

 the year 1875 my boats, six in number, averaged eighty barrels each ; 

 they also got some ling and codfish. Last year, which was the worst 

 year we ever had, we caught in my boats, seven in number, an average 

 of seventy barrels of mackerel each boat. We do not do much in cod 

 and hake fishing here. This year gives good signs of good mackerel 

 fishing, as the mackerel are now much thicker than usual in the bay, 

 and we have already caught some. Taking one year with another, for 

 the last five years, the average catch of mackerel for each of my boats 

 has been one hundred and twenty barrels. My average catch is, I 



