1238 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



shore fishery, and the Americans injure the inshore fishery by drawing 

 off the fish outshore. 



6. The Americans, as I am informed, use purse seines, and I have seen 

 those seines on board their vessels. 



7. During the past ten years I have seen one hundred and sixty Amer- 

 ican vessels fish in Sydney Harbor for mackerel in one day, and large 

 fleets of American fishing-vessels visit our harbor daily for the purpose 

 of catching mackerel during the mackerel season year after year. 



8. The mackerel come inshore to feed and are taken by our fishermen 

 close inshore, and also by the Americans. 



9. Large numbers of our population go on board American fishing- 

 vessels and are engaged in carrying on the American fishing trade, which 

 ought to be encouraged at home. 



JAMES FEASEE. 



Sworn to at South Bar, in the county of Cape Breton, this 21st day of 

 July, A. D. 1877, before me. 



PATRICK MULLINS. 

 Justice of the Peace in and for the County of Cape Breton. 



Xo. 119. 



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



of Washington. 



I, Jonx FERGUSON, of Cow Bay, in the county of Cape Breton, in the 

 Province of Nova Scotia, fisherman, make oath and say as follows : 



1. I have been engaged in fishing during the past thirty-five years, 

 most of that time out of Cow Bay. For two summers I fished out of 

 Chatham, in the State of Massachusetts, in American vessels engaged 

 in mackerel fishing in American waters. 



2. The mackerel taken in American waters were far interior to those 

 taken in our waters. In fact we would not have fished in American 

 waters at all if the Americans had not been afraid of coming into Brit- 

 ish waters to fish. This was in the year 1853. 



3. In this bay I have fished for twenty summers, and have taken 

 mackerel, herring, codfish, haddock, and halibut. 



4. The mackerel are taken inshore, and the best grounds for fishing 

 mackerel are inside the heads in this bay. In my experience, I never 

 saw mackerel taken off shore out beyond three miles. The Americans 

 come here summer after summer in large numbers; and last summer 

 they came among us, commenced taking mackerel, throwing over bait, 

 and drew the mackerel away from our boats. 



5. I have seen in Cow Bay, about twelve years ago, over one hundred 

 American vessels taking mackerel. They fished in close to the shore 

 and up to our wharves, and it would not be of any use for the Ameri- 

 cans to come here to fish unless they were allowed to come in close to 

 the shore. 



6. In my experience mackerel have varied, being sometimes for a num- 

 ber of years good and for another number of years poor. This is more 

 or less the case with all our fish. 



7. I have fished around Scatarie Island, Main-a-Dieu, and out of Mira 

 Bay, about sixteen years ago, and I there at that time saw many Ameri- 

 can fishing vessels engaged in fishing codfish and halibut. I fished 

 around the last-mentioned places for about five years, and none of the 

 American vessels which I saw there went through the Strait of Canso, 



