AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1123 



No. 24. 



DOMINION OF CANADA, 



Province of Prince Edward Island, Prince County : 



I, MICHAEL FOLEY, of Alberton, in Prince County, in the said Island 

 and Dominion, merchant, make oath and say: 



1. That I am at present and have been for the past three years doing 

 business in Alberton aforesaid, and that an important part of my busi- 

 ness consists in prosecuting the fisheries on the north and west coasts 

 of this island. 



2. That 1 furnish supplies to about eighty fishing boats, which sup- 

 plies consist of bait, hooks and lines, provisions and necessary clothing 

 for the men on board said boats ; and that the men required to complete 

 the crews of said boats, and to cure and land the fish taken by the 

 boats, would amount in the aggregate to four hundred men a few more 

 or less. 



3. That I am in frequent communication with the fishermen in my 

 own employ, and with others who prosecute the fisheries on their 

 account (and whose catch of fish I purchase), and consider myself 

 capable of furnishing correct information as to the manner in which the 

 shore fisheries of this province are carried on. 



4. From my own personal observation, and from information obtained 

 in the manner set forth in the preceding section, that nearly if not all 

 the mackerel taken by the boats are caught within three marine miles 

 from the shore, though a large boat may late in the season fish further 

 off the laud. 



5. In a good season a boat's crew will catch between 50 to 80 barrels of 

 mackerel, besides a quantity of herring, codfish, and hake, and the 

 greater part of the codfish and hake are caught more than three miles 

 from the coast line, but within the three-mile limit, and the herring are 

 caught within three miles of the shore. 



6. The boats are sometimes interfered with while fishing by American 

 fishing schooners coming near them, throwing a large quantity of bait 

 and by that means taking away the fish that may be around the boat; 

 the schooners frequently drift and come in contact with the boats when 

 the latter are at anchor, fishing, thus causing serious damage to the 

 boats and their outfit. 



7. In the summer of the year 1868, 1 was in charge of my own vessel, 

 the Lily Ada, of the burden of 55 tons, and was master of said vessel 

 and continued to use the said vessel during the fishing season of that 

 year tor fishing only, and myself and crew of said vessel caught 250 

 barrels of mackerel, three fourths of which catch were taken withiu 

 three miles of the coast, and the remainder were taken within the three- 

 mile limit, and during that summer my vessel was in company with the 

 fleet of American fishing schooners on the coast of this island fishing, 

 and the fish so taken by the different vessels of the American fishing 

 fleet were caught at or near the same fishing grounds and in the same 

 manner as those fish taken by my vessel. 



8. For the past three years I have furnished supplies to fishing stages 

 built for the purpose of packing and curing fish at Mimuigash, Hay- 

 ward's Cove, Frog Pond, Black Pond, Nail Pond, Kildare, and Cascuin- 

 pec Harbor, and these stages are visited by me almost daily during the 

 fishing season, and from my observations made at the different stages, 

 which are all in prominent places on the beach, I should say that fully 

 one-half of the fish caught by the American schooners (fishing at or near 

 that part of the coast) are caught within three miles from the shore, and 



