AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1099 



inestimable, value. We have an inexhaustible supply of them. This 

 branch of the fishing might be. pursued here with very great advantage. 

 A great advantage in this fishery would be the abundance of tish offal 

 which we have for bait, and which is now going to waste. 



25. Hake sounds here are a very valuable article in our fishing. They 

 are procured from the hake or ling. Each quintal of 280 pounds of 

 ling will give on an average about 3 pounds of sounds. Within the 

 last ten years the price of these has ranged all the way from 25 cents to 

 $1.50 a pound, making an average value of 75 cents, in gold, a pound. 

 The value of the sounds is, on an average, worth from 75 to 100 per 

 cent, more than the fluh from which they are taken, and the sounds are, 

 therefore, a very important consideration in fishing. 



26. With improved winter-communication, large quantities of trout, 

 smelt, and some bass might be exported. The value of these fisheries, 

 if the means of trade were opened up, would be greatly enhanced, and 

 would be well worth going into. 



27. We have had one or two instances in this part of the island of 

 men attempting the salmon, and they have proved that it may be made 

 a success in fishing. Our people do not yet know the value of this fish- 

 ery, which I believe will become very valuable. 



28. Our men are now becoming more and more acquainted with the 

 habits of the fish and with the general laws by which their movements 

 are governed, and with their improved knowledge of the habits of the 

 tish and increased facilities for taking them they are now much more 

 able to get catches. 



A. F. LARKIN. 



Sworn to at Frog, or Skinner's Pond, in Prince County, Prince Ed- 

 ward Island, this 28th day of June, A. D. 1877, before me. 



JOSEPH MACGILVRAY, 



J. P. for Prince County. 



T*o. 6. 



I, JAMES CONROY, of Kildare, lot or township ^N"o. 3, in Prince Ed- 

 ward Island, farmer and fisherman, make oath and say : 



1. I have been engaged in fishing and farming for over twelve j'ears. 

 I have fished all the time, except one summer, in boats. 



2. The number of boats fishing off this part of the shore is increas- 

 ing. The number has more than trebled in the last ten years. The 

 boats, are a great deal better now than they were formerly. They are 

 in better shape every way more suited to the purpose. There are 810 

 spent in the business along this shore now to the $1 spent ten years 

 ago. 



3. The boats around about here are small, as the people do not make 

 a specialty of the business, but farm as well. The boats carry about 

 three hands each. 



4. All the mackerel caught along here are caught within three miles 

 of the shore. The greater part are caught within a mjle and a half and 

 one mile of the shore. Near the shore is by far the best fishing ground. 

 In the spring and fall the cod-fish are caught close to the shore. In the 

 summer they are farther oft'. The mackerel is the principal and most 

 valuable part of the fishery. 



5. When an American fleet comes in they certainly do injury to the 

 boat fishing. The more vessels that come down, the more damage is 

 done to the fishing. I have seen a fleet of some hundred Americans 

 fishing off this shore within a couple of miles. 



