AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1195 



two shillings and sixpence per gallon for cod-oil. Eighty quintals fish 

 and two and one-halt tons oil is what I purchased. 



United States vessels regularly refit in this neighborhood, and have 

 purchased provisions, wood, and water. I have furnished them with 

 provisions and other supplies, taking their orders in payment thereof. 

 These orders generally have been paid, but in one instance the captain's 

 order on the American consul, St. John's, in my favor, was refused, and 

 I have never since been paid. 



The supply of bait to United States fishing- vessels acts ruinously upon 

 our local fishermen, and greatly shortens their supply of bait; this is 

 true as regards herrings and squids, and results in shortening the catch 

 of local fishermen. I do believe that the operations of United States 

 fishermen on the Banks, well supplied with fresh bait, interferes with 

 and reduces the catch of our local fishermen, and am of opinion that the 

 short catch of codfish the past summer has been caused by the United 

 States fishermen fishing on the outer Banks. 



The average catch of codfish here the last two years will not exceed 

 twenty quintals per man ; the average catch previous to 1874 would be 

 fully fifty quintals per man. 



There are ice-houses in this locality where ice is preserved for sale to 

 United States fishermen. The price paid for ice supplied in this harbor 

 has been $4 per ton. 



EICHARD CASHFN. 



Sworn before me at Cape Broyle, this ninth day of April, 1877. 



J. O. ERASER, 

 Commissioner of Affidavits. 



No. 80. 



In the matter of the Fisheries Commission at Halifax, under the Treaty 



of Washington. 



I, THOMAS C. ROBERTS, of Cape Canso, in the county of Guysbor- 

 ough, and Province of Nova Scotia, but at present of the city and 

 county of Halifax, in said province, master mariner, make oath and 

 say as follows : 



1. I have been a practical fisherman for fifteen years of my life up to 

 the year 1873, during five years of which time I was in command of a 

 fishing-vessel. I have fished for codfish and mackerel and herring in 

 the Gulf' of Saint Lawrence and on the south shore of Nova Scotia, and 

 during one season on the United States coast. 



2. During the years that I was employed in fishing, the number of 

 American vessels fishing for mackerel and codfish in the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence and on the coast of Nova Seotia would, to the best of my 

 knowledge, range from six hundred to seven hundred each year. The 

 average number of men to each vessel would be about fifteen. 



3. The average catch of American vessels while I was in the fishery 

 was about five hundred barrels per vessel each year. 



4. The practice of using purse seines, which has been followed by the 

 Americans during the past few years, is, in my opinion, very injurious 

 to the mackerel fishery, as it tends to break up the schools of mackerel 

 and drive them away; but perhaps the greatest injury resulting from 

 this practice is the destruction of immense quantities of young mack- 

 erel, which are caught in seines and thrown away as worthless. In the 

 cod fishery the practice of trawling is very destructive, as it destroys 



