AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1103 



believe, the largest on this shore ; the other boats would average about 

 one hundred barrels each. This is on the south side of the North Cape. 



7. The best mackerel fishing we ever have here is about two miles off 

 the shore. Three-quarters, and in fact nearly the whole, of the mack- 

 erel are caught within three miles of the shore. 



8. The American fishing-schooners generally come down here fishing 

 about the 1st of July, and stop till October. I have seen three or four 

 hundred sail of them out here fishing. Last year there were not quite 

 so many. They fish right in among the boats. When the Americans 

 see the boats getting fish they come right in among them, and the boats 

 have to move away and give them room. They take the school of 

 mackerel from the boats, and the boats have to move away somewhere 

 else to try to raise the fish. I have often seen this done by the Ameri- 

 can schooners. I have seen boats come ashore with their spars knocked 

 out by the Yankee schooners. The way they take the mackerel off is 

 that they come in among the boats and throw their bait, which is gen- 

 erally better than ours, and then, instead of lying to anchor, they drift 

 off, carrying the mackerel with them. They thus cause great loss and 

 injury to our boat-fishing. 



9. Before the American schooners come around we generally have 

 good fishing, but when they come we find our fishing begin to slack off; 

 it is not so good. They throw so much bait that small schools of mack- 

 erel are sunk and feed on the bottom, arid we sometimes have bad fish- 

 ing for a fortnight after that. The Americans clean their fish on- board 

 of their vessels and throw the offal overboard, and that destroys the 

 fishing. When we used to gib the mackerel on the fishing ground and 

 throw the gibs and refuse over, we always found that the fish left the 

 place, so that we had to give up cleaning out on the fishing ground, and 

 now we bury the offal on shore, so that it will not get into the run and 

 be carried out to the fishing grounds. 1 therefore believe that the 

 American practice of throwing the offal overboard does great injury to 

 the mackerel and other fisheries. It surfeits the fish and frightens 

 them off. 



10. When the cutters were about here they used to frighten the 

 American schooners off a good deal, but the cutters that were here were 

 too big for the purpose. Their smoke could be seen ten and fifteen miles 

 off, and that gave the schooners plenty of time generally to escape. I 

 have often seen the American schooners clearing out to sea on an alarm 

 of the cutter's approach. I believe a few schooners of sixty or seventy 

 tons each, well fitted out and well manned, would, as cutters, be quite 

 sufficient to protect all the inshore fisheries. Ten would certainly be 

 enough. The reason the schooners would make the best cutters is that 

 they could not be readily distinguished from the American schooners, 

 and some of them could always be on the ground. 



11. The right of transshipment is of very great value to the Ameri- 

 cans. It saves them at least three weeks each trip, and that right in 

 the very best of the fishing season. That, in the season, would be fully 

 equal to a trip saved to the schooners. They can come into our ports 

 and discharge their catches, and take out another outfit, and lose little 

 or no time, not more than two or three days. They can always get 

 refitted here. They can get their fish into the market much quicker 

 owing to this right. They are enabled to catch good markets. The 

 mackerel-market is a very uncertain one, and it is a great advantage to 

 be able to send the fish into it on short notice; and owing to the right 

 of trans-shipment, mackerel can now be sent to Boston in four or five 

 days, instead of taking three or four weeks. The fish are also better by 



