1228 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



4. Within my knowledge and experience the mackerel-fishing has al- 

 ways fluctuated, being good for a number of years and poor again for 

 some time. 



5. During the eighteen years in which I was engaged in the fishing 

 business, caplin only set in three years and fish always came with them 

 and always do ; this year caplin have set in in abundance, as also squid, 

 and the mackerel are quite abundant. 



6. To my knowledge, during the time engaged in the fish trade, 

 American fishermen always trawled deeper than Canadian fishermen, 

 thus catching the larger fish, which are the mother fish, and tbus destroy 

 millions of spawn. When the Americans came and trawled outside, I 

 always found the fish less plentiful afterwards ; this I attributed to their 

 destruction of spawn, and the Americans themselves tell me they do so 

 to the present day. 



7. The American fishermen are always in the habit of throwing over- 

 board the offals of the fish, and the sound bone which is thrown over- 

 board destroys great numbers of large fish ; this our fishermen never 

 practice. The offal frightens away the fish and destroys the fishing 

 grounds for some time. 



8. Before and up to 1854 the American fishermen always fished in- 

 shore for mackerel because the mackerel come inshore to feed, and 

 inshore is the best place to catch them. The mackerel are on their way 

 south, and when on our coast from August till the last of November 

 are at their best, and the Americans have always taken them inshore, 

 treaty or no treaty. They stopped fishing when a cutter hove in sight 

 and returned when she disappeared. 



9. The inshore fisheries are of much greater value than the outside 

 fishery for mackerel, and scarcely any mackerel are taken outside. 



10. From the month of August till November, which is the best time 

 for mackerel fishing, the American fishermen every year, until they had 

 the right of fishing inshore, practiced throwing bait overboard to draw 

 the fish outshore, and this is a very effective plan for drawing out the 

 fish. 



11. During the years in which I was engaged in the fish business, no 

 American fishermen took fish with seines. They now use purse seines 

 for taking mackerel in deep water, which destroys the schools of mack- 

 erel and frightens them away. 



12. The Americans take within three miles of the shore in our bays, 

 harbors, creeks, and rivers, herring, mackerel, squid, and capliu for bait ; 

 this they do in every bay and harbor on the coast. 



13. The herring fishery is inshore and they catch them for bait all 

 around our coast. 



14. I know that Canadian mackerel are better than American, having 

 gone into the American market with our mackerel, and I found that I 

 could get double the price, and while carrying on the fish business at 

 Cape North I lived for some time in Boston and sMd our mackerel in 

 the American market, and have compared mackerel taken in American 

 waters with ours, and always found ours much superior, being worth 

 more than twice that of the American. 



15. Mackerel come inshore to feed on shrimps, which is an inshore 

 fish, and for a kind of grub found inshore, of which they are fond and 

 can be found in the mackerel after they have come inshore. The prin- 

 cipal breeding place of the mackerel is at the Magdalen Islands. 



16. Fresh squid and fresh mackerel being the best bait for codfish, 

 if the Americans were deprived of the privilege of getting this bait, that 

 fishery would be valueless to them, nor could they profitably carry on 



