AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1111 



from one-half a mile to two and one-half miles from the shore, off the 

 north side of the island, and that if the Americans could be prevented 

 from fishing within the three-mile limit they would not frequent our 

 shores at all for the purpose of fishing. During the last six or seven 

 years the mackerel have kept more inshore than in former years. In 

 fact, during the last few years, scarcely a mackerel would be caught 

 outside the three-mile limit. 



12. There is also a large fleet of American vessels engaged in the 

 herring fishery off the Magdalens, Labrador, and Newfoundland; I 

 should say about two hundred and fifty sails. These vessels are gener- 

 ally of a larger class than those engaged in the mackerel fishery, some 

 of them carrying as many as three thousand barrels. From my experi- 

 ence and personal knowledge I would estimate that the Americans 

 catch and take from these shores 150,000 barrels of herring annually, all 

 of which are caught close up to the shore and well within the three mile 

 limit. They also buy large quantities of herring from the shore-fisher- 

 men in Newfoundland, but these are not included in the above estimate. 



JAMES MCDONALD. 



Sworn to at Souris, in Kings County, in Prince Edward Island, this 

 26th day of June, A. D. 1877, before me. 



JAMES E. MACLEAN, 



J. P. for Kings County. 

 No. 14. 



1. JAMES H. DAVIDSON, of Tignish, in Prince County, Prince Edward 

 Island, fish- dealer, make oath and say : 



1. 1 have been for the last seven years running a fishing stage at the 

 North Cape, and have been engaged in fishing all my life, as a practical 

 fisherman, in boats all the time except one year, when I was on board 

 the schooner Frank of this island. 



2. That I believe there are fully two hundred boats fishing between 

 Cascumpec Harbor and North Cape. During the last seven years the 

 number of boats engaged in fishing has certainly trebled. The boats are 

 better models, better rigged, better equipped, are better sailers, and are 

 superior in every respect to what they used to be. During the last ten 

 years the capital invested in the boat-fishing business along this coast 

 has multiplied tenfold, and that is a moderate statement. 



3. The boats will average three men to a boat, all round, for crew, 

 and one man on shore, so that the two hundred boats would give, during 

 the summer, constant employment to eight hundred men, and the num- 

 ber of boats is constantly increasing. I believe that the fishing in this 

 part of the island is still in its infancy. 



4. I should put the average catch of mackerel per boat, taking one 

 year with another for the last ten years, at seventy-five barrels, and the 

 average catch of codfish and hake at fifty quintals. Th' boats nearly 

 always catch as many herring as they require. They get abundance for 

 mackerel bait, for home use, and some to export. The boats would re- 

 quire, on an average, fifteen barrels of herring for bait, e.ach boat, during 

 the mackerel season. 



5. Seven-eighths of the boat-fishing is done within three miles of the 

 shore. All the mackerel and herring are caught within that limit, the 

 codfish sometimes further out. 



6. The reason for the increase of the number of boats is that people 

 find it a profitable business, and the young men are going into it more 

 and more. There is a special class growing up now, who are entirely de- 

 voted to and altogether dependent on fishing. Those men who devote 



