AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1149 



12. That the right to land here, transship their fish, and refit, is a very 

 great boon to the Americans. The schooners save, I should say, about 

 twenty days by being able to land their fish here instead ot going home. 

 They take a good while to go home, whereas they can land in our ports 

 with very little loss of time. They can also fit out in our ports cheaper 

 than they can at home. 



13. That the Americans are now beginning to seine here, and that 

 ought to be stopped; it is a very great injury to the fishing. I believe 

 it has spoiled the fishing on the American shore. Seining hurts the 

 fishing, as it breaks up the schools, scares them oft the shore, and large 

 quantities of fish are killed. They take all sorts of fish, and they throw 

 away everything except the mackerel. The also take small mackerel, 

 and these are killed in the seines and thrown away. 



JOHN J. McPIlEE. 



Sworn to at Black Bush, in King's County, Prince Edward Island, 

 this 2Cth day ot July, A. D. 1877, before me. 



JAMES MAC DONALD. 

 Justice of t lie Peace for King's County. 



No. 40. . 



I, JAMES MCDONALD, of Chepsrow, in township number forty-five, in 

 King's County, Prince Edward Island, farmer and fisherman, make 

 oath and say : 



1. That I have been engaged, as boy and man, in fishing for forty 

 years past, in both boats and schooners, the schooners being both 

 American and island vessels. I fished four years in island schooners 

 and three years in American. I have fished all round this island, down 

 at the Magdalens, up west, in the Bay Chaleur, and herring-fishing in 

 the winter at Newfoundland. 



2. That, including boats and dories, there are engaged in the fishery 

 from Murray Harbor to East Point, on the south side of this island, from 

 three hundred to three hundred and fifty boats. The number is increas- 

 ing fast every year; they have doubled in number in the last three 

 years, and are now increasing fast. 



3. That the boats increase because there is a demand for fish, and 

 fishing pays better than any other work that I know. Fish are ready- 

 money articles, and we can get cash for them any day, and we cannot 

 get it for anything else. The fishing puts a lot of money in circulation 

 in the country, which in itself is a great advantage. 



4. That the boats, including dories, take, on an average, two to three 

 men each, the dories generally taking two. 



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

 bait. The boats use from ten to twenty barrels each during the season 

 for mackerel and cod fish bait. The boats catch some two and three 

 hundred quintals of cod-fish and hake during the season, and some less. 

 The average would be about two hundred quintals, which produce a 

 large quantity of sounds and oil. The sounds of the hake are worth 

 nearly twice as much as the fish themselves without the sounds. Some 

 of the boats get, on this side, forty barrels of mackerel and more. The 

 average catch would be thirty-five barrels to a boat. We go in princi- 

 pally for cod fishing here. 



6. That nearly all the herring caught are taken close inshore. About 

 half the codfish are taken near the shore that is, within three miles. 

 There might be one quarter of the mackerel taken by boats heie caught 



