1092 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



August ; but during the months of September and October the boats 

 take their catch further out, say two miles or two and a halt. It is a 

 very rare occasion that they go out three miles, or beyond it. 



13. Of the total catch in the boats, over nine-tenths are caught well 

 \vithin the three-mile limit. 



14. The American fishing fleet have always fished on the same ground 

 as the boats. They go in as close and closer to our coast than half a mile, 

 commence throwing over bait, and drift off, taking fish with them off the 

 shore, and when they lose the fish tack for the laud again and renew 

 operations. I can't "say the proportion of their catch taken within the 

 limit, because they sometimes make a good catch outside in deep-sea 

 waters. The fleet have always fished within the three miles before the 

 abolition of the Reciprocity Treaty and afterwards. They never gave 

 up. The cruisers frightened them a little, but as soon as they were past, 

 the fishing-vessels went right to work again and fished as before. 



15. I prosecute the herring-fishing iu the spriug for bait, and get 

 enough for that purpose, and to a small extent the cod-fishing, bat my 

 previous statements have entire reference to the mackerel fishery. The 

 herring are all taken close to the shore. 



ALEX. M. McNEILL. 



Sworn to at Charlottetown, in Queens County, Prince Edward Island, 

 this 18th day of June, A. D. 1877, before me. 



E. JAMES SALMER, 

 Commissioner for taking Affidavits in the Supreme Court, 



and Notary Public for Prince Edward Island. 



No. 2. 

 DOMINION OF CANADA, 



Province of Prince Edward Island, Queens County, to icit: 



I, HUGH JOHN MONTGOMERY, of New London, iu Prince Edward 

 Island, merchant, make oath and say: 



1. That I ana aged thirty-six, and have resided all my life, excepting the 

 last four or five years, on the north shore of this island, and have prose- 

 cuted the fishing business both in boats and schooners, and profess to 

 have a good knowledge of the business, having been mixed up in it all 

 uiy life. 



That during the past four or five years I have resided at Clifton, about 

 four miles from the sea-shore, and have traded a good deal with the fish- 

 ermen, and acquired, from actual experience, and from a prolonged and 

 constant intercourse with the fishermen, a thorough knowledge of the 

 different branches of fishing, as carried on along the shores and coasts 

 of this island. 



That one season I commanded a schooner of my own, and fished in 

 her along the north side of this island, and up the Bay Chaleur. That 

 during the last few years the increase in the boat-fishing around this 

 island has been enormous, between fifty and sixty boats fishing out of 

 the New London Harbor, and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 

 out of Rustico Harbor, while other harbors with which I am not so 

 minutely acquainted, such as Malpeque, Cascunipec, Tiguish, Nail Pond, 

 Mimenegash, Egmont Bay, Murray Harbor, Souris, Tracadie, and Saint 

 Peters, send out, every season, very large numbers of well equipped fish- 

 ing boats. 



That during the past winter still larger preparations were made for 

 the coining season, and I fully believe the number of boats fishing 

 around the coasts of this island will be, this year, largely in excess of 



