1260 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



14. Mackerel follow the shrimp inshore, and spawn inshore in the bays 

 and harbors around our coasts. 



15. About Canso I have often seen Americans land and dry their 

 nets. This privilege I consider of great value to them, as it enables 

 them to carry on the inshore Det fishery. 



16. I have seen Americans transship their cargo at Canso, and by so 

 doing they save a great deal of time, and catch more fish. They save 

 from two to three weeks in the best of the season. 



17. If the Americans could not procure bait inshore from Canadian 

 fishermen, and ice in which to pack it, they could not carry on, in my 

 opinion, the Bank fishing with success, and they buy bait, as already 

 stated, in order to save time. They could not preserve their bait with- 

 out ice. and they get ice along the coast near where they get bait. 



18. I do not know nor have I ever heard of any Canadian vessels fish- 

 ing in American waters, and I consider this privilege ot no value. 



19. In fitting out vessels, which I have often done, the Americans 

 make bait and ice scarce because of the larger quantities of herring and 

 mackerel they take away before these fish become plenty, and thus 

 hinder our fishing-vessels. They make the fish scarce for our inshore 

 fishermen. 



20. In my opinion our fisheries would be more than double their 

 present value to us if the Americans were excluded. 



JOHN SMELTZER. 



Sworn to at Luneuburg, in the county of -Luneuburg, this 4th day of 

 August, A. B. 1877, before me. 



JOSEPH W. LOCKHART, J. P. 



No. 136. 



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



of Washington. 



I, ELIAS RICHARDS, of Getson's Cove, in the county of Lunenburg, 

 fisherman, make oath and say as follows : 



1. I have been fishing for the last thirty years continuously. I have 

 fished along the southern coast of Nova Scotia, around Prince Edward 

 Island, around the Magdelenes, and along the Canadian coast of Labra- 

 dor. I have taken all the kinds of fish found on the above-mentioned 

 coasts. I am also well acquainted with the inshore fishery in Lunen- 

 burg County. I have also been engaged in banking fishing to a large 

 extent. 



2. For twenty four falls I fished in the North Bay successively, except 

 one or two falls, down to the fall of seventy-five, inclusive, for mackerel. 

 I have seen in the North Bay, at one time together, over four hundred 

 American mackerel-vessels in Malpeque, and in Port Hood; in Malpe- 

 que there were so many that I could not anchor, and ran ashore. Dur- 

 ing the past five or six years I was in the North Bay I have seen from 

 200 to 300 American mackerelmen, and every fall I was there it was 

 quite common to count from one hundred to one hundred and fifty 

 American vessels from the deck of our schooner. There were many 

 there which I did not see. These vessels took the most of their mack- 

 erel within three miles of the shore, sometimes close into the shore, and 

 it would not pay vessels to go into the North Bay to fish mackerel un- 

 less they could take them within three miles of the shore. 



3. Those American mackerelmen carry from twelve to twenty-two 



