1126 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



the Northwester, also from Gloucester. This year was not as good as 

 former ones. Our catch was five hundred and eighty-five barrels. In 

 1808 I made one trip late in the fall of the year. Our catch for that 

 trip was ninety barrels. In 1869 I fished in the Pescadore, and that 

 year we made two trips, catching, during the first, two hundred and 

 twenty barrels, and, during the last, one hundred and seventy barrels, 

 making three hundred and ninety barrels for that season. 



3. That during the six years from 18G4 to 1870, my opinion, from 

 actual observation, is that there were about four hundred American 

 vessels of an average in the gulf each year, and that the average catch 

 per vessel would be about four hundred barrels each season. 



4. That I have no hesitation in saying from my personal experience 

 during that time that at least three-fourths of all the mackerel caught 

 in the Gulf by American vessels have been taken within the three-mile 

 limits. 



5. The cutters did not trouble us anything to speak of, and I do not 

 think they interfered with vessels fishing within the limits to any extent. 



6. At that time there were large numbers of boats fishing off Eustico 

 and Tignish. The catches of these boats would no doubt have been 

 much larger if the Americans did not visit our coasts and fish inshore. 



7. Judging from the large proportion of the fish caught by the Ameri- 

 cans within tbe three-mile limits, I am of opinion that they would not 

 come here at all for fishing purposes if they could be wholly prevented 

 from fishing within the three-mile limits. 



PETER DEAGLE. 



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

 twenty-seventh day of June, A. D. 1877, before me. 



JAMES E. MACLEAN, 



J. P. for Kings County, Prince Edward Inland. 

 No. 27. 



I, SAMUEL PROWSE, of Murray Harbor, in Kings County, Prince 

 Edward Island, member of the local government, make oath and say: 



1. That I have been engaged in the fishing business in Murray Har- 

 bor for eleven years. 



2. That there are about forty boats or more engaged in fishing out of 

 Murray Harbor, the values of which would run from one hundred and 

 fifty to five hundred dollars each ; there are also six or seven schooners. 

 These boats take crews of about four men each, besides the men em- 

 ployed on shore, who number about thirty men. 



3. That there are a large quantity of fish taken by small boats along 

 the shore, of which we have not the means of forming a correct estimate. 

 The boats above mentioned, together with what fish are taken in the 

 immediate vicinity by the small boats along the shore, take over three 

 thousand quintals of codfish and over four thousand of hake. There 

 cannot be less than seven thousand pounds of sounds taken from these 

 hake, worth, at a low estimate, fifty cents a pound. The codfish are 

 worth about three dollars, and the hake two dollars the quintal. There 

 are about four thousand gallons of oil taken from these fish, worth from 

 forty to forty-five cents a gallon. The fishing-stages here pay little 

 attention to mackerel fishing, as the cod-fishing off here is the more 

 profitable, and fishermen get the mackerel chiefly for bait, and they are 

 dependent on the mackerel for their codfish bait. The Americans, by 

 destroying the mackerel fishing on the shore, injure our cod-fishing. 



