AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1155 



numerous the last two years is that they have had good fishing on their 

 own shore, a thing which very seldom happens. It is only very seldom 

 that they have good fishing on their own coasts. 



8. That fully two-thirds of the fish caught by the Americans are caught 

 Dear the shore, within three miles of it. 1 know this, because I have 

 fished among them year after year, and I never saw twenty of them at 

 a time fishing more than three miles off, while from 150 to 200 sail of 

 them would be fishing close to the shore. They and the island schoon- 

 ers always fish about the same grounds. The inshore fishing has always 

 been the best for mackerel at all seasons of the year. 



9. That my average catch of mackerel while fishing in island schoon- 

 ers was about 500 barrels of mackerel each year, but we were not so 

 well fitted out as the Americans, they having more men, better fit-outs, 

 and more experienced fishermen than we had. The average catch of 

 the Americans was consequently much larger than ours. They would 

 average a thousand barrels each until the last two years, when they 

 have been fishing on their own coast. During the last two years they 

 would not average more than 400 barrels down here, because they did 

 not come in time, and the fish were close inshore, and there were not 

 so many fish here as before. 



10. That the Americans catch codfish near the Labrador, close into the 

 rocks. There used to be about two hundred sail of American cod-fish- 

 ermen at the Labrador and along the gulf shores. 



11. That the American schooners used to do great injury to the boat- 

 fishing. When the American fleet was down here, it used to knock up 

 the boat-fishing. They used to hurt the boats, and in fact their schooners 

 did not care what they did to the boats. When they saw the boats 

 raising fish they would come right up and drift down upon the boats 

 when the boats had to get out of the way. Their schooners, when the 

 boats were getting fish, come up and lee-low the boats and take the fish 

 away from them. They used to break up the schools by running down 

 among them and throwing bait. When the Americans clean their fish, 

 they throw the offal overboard and that is a great injury to the fishing, 

 as it drives the mackerel from the ground, and I believe it kills them. 



12. That the Americans fish large quantities of herring at the Mag- 

 dalen Islands ; they often have one hundred and fifty sail of vessels there 

 fishing herring there. I have seen the number as low as sixty sail, but 

 very seldom. They average about one thousand barrels of herring to 

 each vessel. These are all caught inside of Pleasant Bay, and they are 

 all caught by seines. These herring are partly smoked and are sent to 

 different 'parts of the United States, and to the West Indies, and 

 Sweden, and in fact to wherever there is a market. The herring fish- 

 ery at the Magdalen Islands is a very valuable one for the Americans, 

 as they are put to little expense about it and get large returns. 



13. The Americans always come down after the Fourth of July, I have 

 seen a hundred sail of them go into Halifax in one day to fit out for the 

 gulf-fishing. They stop here till late in November, generally making 

 two or three trips in the season. I have seen thirty sail of American 

 schooners come out of Malpeque Harbor, and to my certain knowledge, 

 they each wanted from one hundred to one hundred and fifty barrels of 

 being loaded, and they dropped down and fished between New London 

 Head and Rustico Head, not two miles from shore, and before sun-down 

 they had all completed their cargoes and sailed for home. 



14. Our regular mackerel season begins here about the first of July: 

 The mackerel strike in here about that time. At the North Cape of this 

 island they strike earlier than they do here. The mackerel season lasts 



