AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1269 



11. The greater part of the bait that the Americans procure on oar 

 shores they purchase from our fishermen, but they catch part of it in 

 our inshore waters. This summer I saw an American vessel setting 

 nets for herring in Aricbat Harbor. 



ISIDORE LEBLAXC. 



The said Isidore Le Blanc was sworn to the truth of this affidavit jit 

 Arichat, in the county of Richmond, on the fourth day of August,*A. 

 D. 1877, before me. 



E. P. FLYNN, 

 A Justice of the Peace. 



No. 145. 



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



of Washington. 



I, BRYAN MURPHY, of Port Hood, in the county of Inverness, fisher- 

 man and trader, make oath and say as follows : 



1. For thirty-five years past I have been actively engaged in the fish- 

 ing business as a practical fisherman, and during that time I have made 

 trips on board American fishing-vessels, and I have generally belli fa- 

 miliar with the fishing business on this coast for all that time. 



2. I have known some years as many as seven hundred American 

 vessels fishing in the gulf and the shores around Nova Scotia, Cape 

 Breton, and the Magdalene Islands. I have seen during the Reciprocity 

 Treaty as many as four or five hundred American fishing-vessels in the 

 harbor of Port Hood at one time. 



3. The American fishermen catch codfish and mackerel principally in 

 great numbers, and herring, haddock, hake, and halibut in smaller quan- 

 tities. The American fleet begins to arrive on our grounds about the 

 first of May for the cod-fishing. Then in July they begin the mackerel 

 fishing, and they keep up their fishing operations till into November. 

 They averaged three trips a season under the Reciprocity Treaty, and 

 each vessel took on an average three hundred barrels mackerel, worth 

 $15 per barrel. The average cargo of codfish was about one thousand 

 quintals, although I have been engaged on board of an American ves- 

 sel which took fifteen hundred quintals for a cargo. The cargo was worth 

 from $4 to $5 per quintal. 



4. After the Reciprocity Treaty the American fishing-fleet fell oft' very 

 much, and the catch was less and the trips fewer for the season, and the 

 profits were very much less. Since the Washington Treaty the Ameri- 

 can vessels and fishermen are beginning to come back here, and I be- 

 lieve if the Americans do not ruin the grounds and destroy the fisheries 

 that there will soon be as many of them here as during the Reciprocity 

 Treaty. I know of as many as seventy or eighty American vessels that 

 have baited here this season already. 



5. During the Reciprocity Treaty I believe that at least two thirds of 

 all the fish taken by the Americans on the coast of British North Amer- 

 ica were taken inshore. The inshore grounds are always considered the 

 most valuable for fishing in, and often enough have I heard the Ameri- 

 can fishermen say so. Since the Treaty of Washington and no\v the 

 Americans catch two thirds of their fish within three miles of the shore. 

 All bait is got inshore, and in autumn particularly the mackerel cluster 

 near the shore, and it is there they are chiefly caught. 



6. I am aware of American fishermen using purse seines in the mack- 

 erel fishery, and there is no doubt it is very destructive to our grounds 



