AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1203 



No. 85. 



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



of Washington. 



I, BENJAMIN WENTZLER, of Lower La Have, in the county of Lu- 

 nenburg, fisherman, make oath and say as follows : 



1. I have been engaged in the fisheries for twenty-seven years up to 

 eighteen hundred and seventy-five, inclusive, and fished every year in 

 the North Bay, around Cape Breton, Prince Edward's Island, eastern 

 side of New Brunswick, and around the Magdalenes. I have taken all 

 the fis'i found in the waters on the above-mentioned coast. I am also 

 well acquainted with the inshore fisheries in Lunenburg County. I 

 have seen often more than a hundred American vessels fishing on the 

 above-named coasts in one fleet together, and 1 have seen these vessels 

 make off from the shore when a steamer appeared to protect the fishery ; 

 when the smoke of the steamer could not be seen they came in again to 

 the shore. Such large numbers of them made it dangerous for Nova 

 Scotian fishermen, and I have lost many a night's sleep by them in order 

 to protect our vessel. I have seen in Pon Hood Harbor about three 

 hundred sail of American vessels at one time, and it is seldom, if ever, 

 that a third of them are in any harbor at one time ; and I have been run 

 into by an American schooner in Port Hood Harbor. From 1871 . to 

 1875, inclusive, I have seen the Americans in large numbers around 

 Prince Edward Island, eastern side of New Brunswick, and around 

 Cape Breton. I have seen many American vessels on the above-men- 

 tioned coasts engaged in taking codfish. They took fish inshore by 

 trawling offshore and wherever they could catch them. Some parts of 

 the season the codfish is better inshore than off, and in my experience I. 

 have caught in our vessels more codfish inshore than off shore. 



2. The Americans took in their schooners from three to four hundred 

 barrels of mackerel to each vessel, and they made three such trips. The 

 Americans fish on Sunday which our vessels do not do. The American 

 mackerel-men carry from fourteen to twenty men. The American cod- 

 fishermen have about fifteen or sixteen men on board, and take from six 

 hundred to a thousand quintals. 



3. The Americans take codfish by trawling, and did so as long as I 

 can remember. About five years ago our vessels commenced trawling, 

 in order to compete with the Americans. This trawling I consider very 

 injurious to the fishery. 



4. The Americans get bait all along the coast and in this harbor. 

 Without this bait and ice they could not carry on the deep-sea fishery. 



5. It would, in my opinion, be of great value to us fishermen if the 

 Americans were excluded, and I know of no benefit to us in allowing 

 the Americans to come into our inshore waters. 



BENJAMIN WENTZLER. 



Sworn to at Lower La Have, in the county of Lunenburg, this 8th 

 day of August, A. D. 1877. 



JAMES H. WENTZEL, J. P. 



No. 86. 



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



of Washington. 



I, GEORGE CONRAD, of South Village, in the county of Luneuburg, 

 master-mariner, make oath and say as follows : 



