AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1107 



drift off drawing the mackerel after them. They sometimes spoil a 

 a boat's summer's work. 



15. Their cod-fishermen do harm to the fishing by throwing overboard 

 the offal to the codfish. We know well enough when we see the An ri- 

 can fleet coming that there is an end to our good fishing. The fisher- 

 men here look upon the arrival of the Americans as a serious injury 

 and damage to the island fishing. 



16. That there is, on an average, three hundred sail of American vessels 

 every year engaged in herring fishing at the Magdalen Islands ; they 

 seine the fish, and take, on an average, about one thousand barrels each 

 vessel. The herring fishing there is right inshore. 1 were herring fish- 

 ing at the Magdalen Islands three years, and each year there were about 

 three hundred sail of Americans there fishing. They send some home 

 and more they ship away to foreign markets. That herring fishery is a 

 very important trade to them. 



17. That the right of transshipment is a very great advantage to the 

 Americans, in two ways : they can ship their fish in time to catch good 

 markets, which is very important to them, as the mackerel market is a 

 very fluctuating one ; they also save ten days clear fishing, right in the 

 heart of the fishing season, that is clear of the three days they would 

 take to unload and refit her. In good years that would amount to an- 

 other trip in the course of the summer. The fish are also better and 

 command higher prices by being sent up quickly ; if kept in the vessels 

 till they get to market, they are not nearly so good nor worth so much. 



JOHN CHAMPION. 



Sworn to at Alberton, in Prince County, Prince Edward Island, this 

 30th day of June, A. D. 1877, before me. 



JOSEPH MACGILVRAY, 



J. P. for Prince County. 



No. 11. 



I, SEBASTIAN DAVIDSON, of Tignish, in Prince County, in Prince Ed- 

 ward Island, accountant, make oath and say : 



1. I have been connected with the fishing business as accountant and 

 bookkeeper in different establishments for over twenty years in this 

 part of the country. The business, so far as I have been engaged in it, 

 has always been with boats. 



2. There are a hundred boats fishing from Kildare to the North Cape 

 of this island. The number of boats, I should say, has doubled in the 

 last ten' years. The quality of the boats has very much improved ; they 

 are fitted out better, have every requisite for fishing, and are better sail- 

 ers than formerly; they can now stay out, instead of being obliged to 

 return to shore every evening. 



3. The American fleet is not now so numerous as it was a few years 

 ago. A few years ago, before the Reciprocity Treaty was done away 

 with, I should say it numbered from three to four hundred sail. I have 

 seen them as thick as bees all along the shore. They used to fish all 

 along this shore, up Bay Chaleur. at the Magdalen Islands, at Port 

 Hood and other places, within three miles of the shore along here. 



4. The herring fishery is important for bait about here ; it was a fail- 

 ure here this year except in traps. 



5. The right of transshipment is a great advantage to the Americans, 

 inasmuch as they can land their first, refit, and be on the grounds again 

 without much loss of time. They are also enabled by virtue of this 

 right to take advantage of the fluctuations of the markets, and can even 



