AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1135 



The fishermen are also enabled to take advantage of the fluctuations 

 of the fish market, and catch good prices. 



JOHN GRAHAM. 



Sworn to at Cavendish, in Queen's County, Prince Edward Island, this 

 llth day of July, A. D. 1877, before me. 



ALEX. M. McNEILL, J. P., 

 Commissioner for taking Affidavits for Queen? * County. 



No. 33. 



I, JOHN R. MCDONALD, of St. Margaret's, in King's County, in Prince 

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



1. That I have had a practical acquaintance with the fishing business 

 for the last eighteen years, all in schooners, both belonging to this 

 island and to the United States. I have fished out of Gloucester, in the 

 United States, for seven years, and I know the gulf-fisheries well. I 

 have been master of fishing schooners for the last eight years, excepting 

 the present year (A. D. 1877). 



2. That at the present time I am carrying on a fishing business at 

 New London Harbor, in Queen's County, in said island. There are about 

 one hundred and fifteen boats belonging to and fishing off the New Lon- 

 don Harbor and beach at the present time, and 1 believe they are in- 

 creasing. There are a lot of new boats fishing here now. and a lot of 

 stages have been put up here during the past year. The reason I give 

 for the increase in the number of boats, and the increased quantity of 

 money invested in boat-fishing, is that, when the people carried on fish- 

 ing on the coast in a small way, they found the business to pay, and 

 then they went more into it, and the more boats they put into the busi- 

 ness, the greater were their profits in proportion to the number of boats 

 employed. It does not cost very much more to run ten boats fishing 

 than it does to run six, because the stages and all the shore expense and 

 outfit would be the same, and the only additional expense would be the 

 actual cost of the new boats with their outfits, and the extra feed and 

 wages of the men on board them, while the profits would be larger. In 

 short, as far as my experience goes, I find the fishing to be a paying 

 business, although some years are better than others. 



3. That. the boats are now much better built, better rigged and better 

 equipped in every way than they were five years ago. People now take 

 pride in their boats. 



4. That the average crews of the boats are about four men to each 

 boat, besides those employed on shore, who are employed at about the 

 rate of four to six men to six boats. 



5. That I should call one hundred and fifty barrels a fair average 

 catch of mackerel per boat for the season, taking one year with another ; 

 but less than that would pay well. 



6. I should think that all the mackerel are caught within three miles 

 of the shore. I lound in vessels that I could do nothing more than three 

 miles from the shore. Within the last three or four years none have 

 been caught outside of three miles. 



7. That I fished for eight years on board of island schooners in the gulf, 

 as captain. I fished in the schooners Letty, Corsair, Octavia, George S. 

 Fogg, Little Belle, belonging to this island . 



8. That I went out fishing in the Corsair about eight years ago. She 

 was of about forty tons burden, and carried a crew of twelve hands. 

 She made two trips that season, mostly along the island shore, and 



