AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1249 



4. Around and in Louisburg Harbor duriiig the past six years there 

 has on an average been from eight hundred to a thousand barrels of 

 mackerel taken each year. In Louisburg Harbor there are about one 

 hundred boats engaged in the inshore fishery, and these boats take 

 from one hundred to one hundred and fifty quintals of codfish each, 

 yearly. During the past six years there has been taken yearly on an 

 average about three thousand barrels of herring. About ten years ago 

 larger quantities of mackerel were taken. 



0. The Americans take fish by trawling, and trawl so deep that they 

 take the large fish, which are the mother fish, and thus large quantities 

 of spawn are destroyed. The Americans take mackerel with hook and 

 line, they jig them, and they have told us last summer that they had 

 purse seines on board. 



7. The inshore fisheries are of very great value to our people, and it 

 is of great importance that they should be protected and fostered, and 

 all the inhabitants here depend upon the fishing. 



8. American fishing-vessels purchase bait here in large quantities, 

 mostly herring and mackerel, because it saves time, and without bait the 

 Americans can catch no fish. From twenty to thirty American vessels 

 purchase bait in this harbor yearly. These American vessels all pur- 

 chase ice in which to pack their bait, from tkree to ten tons each, and 

 when ice and bait run out they return for more. This ice is indispen- 

 sable for their bait, for they tell me they cannot profitably catch fish 

 without fresh bait. 



9. I am not aware of any Canadian vessel fishing in American waters, 

 nor have I ever heard of any. The privilege of fishing in American 

 waters I consider of no value, while the Americans take vast quantities 

 of fish out of our waters. 



10. The amount of ice and bait taken by American fishing vessels is 

 worth in cash from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty dollars. 

 Their supplies are brought from home with them, and they only pur- 

 chase from us when they run short, and the amount purchased, except 

 ice and bait, is very small. 



11. Jn my opinion, if American fishermen were excluded from Cana- 

 dian waters and our markets left to ourselves, it would be much better 

 for our fishermen. 



J. E. GARDNER. 



Sworn to at Louisburg, this 27th day of July, A. D. 1877, in the county 

 of Cape Breton, before me. 



PATRICK O'TOOLE, 

 J. P. for the County of Cape Breton. 



No. 129. 



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



of Washington. 



1, PHILIP LEMONTAIS, of Arichat, in the county of Richmond and 

 Province of Nova Scotia, agent for the firm of Robin & Company, make 

 oath and say as follows : 



1. I have had a good knowledge of our fisheries on the coasts of Can- 

 ada during the past twenty-five years, for twenty years of which I have 

 been agent of the firm of Robin & Company, who do an extensive fish- 

 ing business in various parts of the world, the principal house being 

 79 F 



