1148 AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



3. That these boats take crews of from two to four meu each, and av- 

 erage about three raeu each. That is clear of the men employed oil 

 shore to carry on the business. 



4. That the boats get as many herring in the spring as they want for 

 mackerel-bait during the summer, and if the people choose to go into 

 the business, they could get a great many. Last year my boats and 

 dories averaged fifty quintals of cod and hake. The boats also get on 

 an average, on that side, about fifty barrels of mackerel in the season. 

 These fish are all caught within three miles of the shore, that being the 

 good fishing ground. 



5. That I was out fishing in several island schooners, in the Jane, 

 Margaret, in one Nova Scotian vessel, the Tyro, and some other island 

 vessels. In the Jane we got about two hundred and twenty barrels of 

 mackerel. Most of these were taken in on the shore, very few of them 

 were taken in deep water. In the Margaret we were cod-fishing right 

 off this shore; the fish taken in her were caught within three miles of 

 the shore. In the Tyro, a small, little vessel, we took about two hun- 

 dred and twenty barrels of mackerel, all of which were caught near the 

 shore, round the coast. 



6. That I fished for two years in the bay in American vessels, one 

 year in the Two-forty and one year in the G. G. Kidder. In the Two- 

 forty we took nine hundred and ninety barrels of mackerel. She was a 

 schooner of sixty seven tons burden, and carried 15 hands. Of these 

 fish about one hundred and fifty barrels were caught in deep water, 

 more than three miles from the shore ; the rest were taken close to 

 shore, within three miles of this island the New Brunswick, Nova Sco- 

 tian, and Magdalen Islands shores. 



7. That in the G. G. Kidder, a schooner of about the same size as the 

 other, we took three hundred and sixty-six or seventy barrels of mack- 

 erel ; most of these fish were taken close in round the shores. We took 

 very few in deep water. 



8. That I had been cod-fishing in deep water off the American shore. 

 There are over a thousand American vessels engaged in this fishery. 

 They get the main part of the bait they use at ^ewlonndland, round 

 the Nova Scotia shore, and at the Magdalen Islands. The cod-fishery 

 there is d( pendent on these herring fisheries, and would be a failure if 

 these herring could not be taken. They also get supplies of ice on our 

 shores. 



9. That for the last ten years there has been an American fleet of 

 fishing-schooners, on an average, of over five hundred sail in this gulf 

 fishing. Some years there are more and some years less. Last year 

 there were not a great many ; the number varies. There are a lot of 

 Americans coming down here this year ; this season there are a number 

 of seiners down here, and they do a lot of harm. 



10. That the American fishermen clean the fish on the grounds, and 

 throw the dirt and offal overboard. This does a lot of harm to the fishing. 

 The fish eat up this dirt or gurry, and this sickens them, and I believe 

 kills the fish. When this is thrown overboard the fish stop biting 

 and cannot be caught. I have always seen them stop biting when we 

 threw the offal overboard. This hurts the boat-fishing, as they have 

 to stop on the ground ; the schooners can leave and go to other places. 

 We fishermen look upon this as a very serious injury to us. 



11. That the schooners also do a great deal of injury to the boat-fish- 

 ing by lee-bowing the boats. They come up around the boats, throw a 

 lot of bait and drift off, drawing the fish after them. They do this pur- 

 posely. It was done in the American vessels iu which I fished myself. 



