AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1229 



the cod and other deep-sea fisheries without this privilege of getting 

 bait, and ice in which to pack it. 



17. The ice they bring from home is melted by the time they arrive 

 here, and without ice they could not preserve their bait. Their outfits 

 they are furnished with before they leave home. 



18. None of our fishermen fish in American waters because our own 

 grounds are so much better, and this fact I have had corroborated by 

 American fishermen. And if the Americans were excluded from our 

 grounds fish would be more plenty and more regular on the inshore 

 grounds. 



19. American fishermen smuggle goods, and I have been informed of 

 seizures being made for this practice. 



20. I have known fifty or sixty sail of American fishermen at one time 

 fishing off Sydney Harbor, all of whom anchored in the harbor at night 

 and ran out in the morning, catching mackerel, within the last five 

 years ; and it is my opinion that if the American fishermen were ex- 

 cluded from our fishing grounds that our own people would go into the 

 fishing much more, and more profitably. 



21. None of the codfish vessels, to my knowledge, go through the 

 Strait of Canso. They come around the southern and eastern coasts of 

 Cape Breton, and many mackerelmen do the same. Mackerelmen fish 

 around by Scaterie, and it is therefore shorter for them to come round 

 by the southern and eastern sides of the island of Cape Breton. 



A. McKAT. 



Sworn to at North Sydney, in the County of Cape Breton, this 19th 

 day of July, A. D. 1877, before me. 



JOHN FORBES, 

 Justice Peace in and for the County of Cape Breton. 



No. 110. 



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



of Washington. 



I, JAMES McLEOD, formerly of Gabarus, in the county of Cape Bre- 

 ton, province of Nova Scotia, for the last five years now past, of North 

 Sydney, in the said county and province, master mariner, make oath 

 and say as follows: 



1. I have been master mariner for about six years, and am well ac- 

 quainted with the fisheries on the coasts of Cape Breton, Prince Edward 

 Island, the Magdalen Islands, the eastern coast of New Brunswick, 

 Newfoundland, and Labrador. 



2. I was personally engaged in the fisheries for about eight years. I 

 fished on the shores of Cape Breton, particularly on the eastern side ; 

 on the eastern more than on the other sides. Around the Magdalen 

 Islands, Prince Edward Island, and on the eastern coast of New Bruns- 

 wick, I have also been engaged in Bank fishing. 



3. During this time I fished in company with American fishing-ves- 

 sels. Around the Magdalen Islands they were almost all American 

 fishermen also on the eastern coast of New Brunswick and I have 

 seen great numbers of American fishing- vessels in these two last-men- 

 tioned localities. Last summer I fished from Cape North to Scaterie, 

 during the cod season, and saw at that season great numbers of Ameri- 

 can fishermen there, engaged in fishing. Within the last two years I 

 have seen many American fishermen, from Cape North to Scaterie, en- 



