1306 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



No. 181. 



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



of Washington. 



I WILLIAM HYMAN, justice of the peace and mayor of the township 

 of Cape de Hosier, of Grande Greve, in the county of Gaspe, make oath 

 and say as follows: 



1. I am a merchant, and have lived here for 34 years. I have been in 

 the fishing business all the time. I have an establishment here, one at 

 Cape de Rosin, one at Fox River, and another at Gaspe Basin. I un- 

 derstand every operation practically relating to the taking and curing 

 of fish. I am acquainted with the fisheries carried on from Grand Etang 

 to Gaspe Bay. The fisheries there carried on are the cod, herring, mack- 

 erel, and halibut. 



2. Those fisheries are carried on mostly within three miles from the 

 shore. The value of the inshore fisheries, therefore, is vastly greater 

 than those outside ; the fact is, very few boats go outside. The run of 

 the codfish is about the same on the coast as it was formerly, though, 

 owing to the greater number of boats, each boat may not have so much. 



3. The herring, upon the whole, appears to be in the same quantity as 

 formerly. They spawn in large quantities at Sandy Beach, in the Bay 

 of Gaspe. 



4. The mackerel were very abundant in this bay, and along the 

 outside coast ; for the last few years they have been scarce. They some 

 years ago failed in the same way but came back again, and they have 

 already appeared this year. 



5. Ever since I settled here, I have seen American mackerel-vessels 

 fishing for mackerel, both in the bay and harbor of Gaspe and the neigh- 

 boring coast ; they fished with the bob and with seines; sometimes the 

 bay used to be full of them ; from 100 to 200 vessels used to come dur- 

 ing the season; the tonnage of these vessels was from 60 to 100 tons, 

 carrying from 15 to 20 men ; they fished with hooks and seines, some of 

 them loaded more than once, and they carried on an average from 500 

 to 600 barrels. Although before the Treaty of Reciprocity the coast 

 was guarded, yet they managed to come and fish, but the greatest num- 

 bers were seen (hiring the existence of the Reciprocity Treaty and the 

 period of licenses, a period of about 14 years; after this time, during 

 the years 1868, 1869, and 1870, the coast was again guarded, and still 

 they managed to come in certain numbers, defying the cutters ; they did 

 not mind the cutters, as they believed they could outsail them. Since 

 the Treaty of Washington they came in numbers, until the last two or 

 three years; during the first three years of the Treaty of Washington 

 only about one fourth of the number that used to come during the 

 Reciprocity Treaty. 



6. The presence of so many American vessels in this bay and along 

 the coast, above described, was very injurious to our fisheries, depriv- 

 ing us of the bait for codfish, and by their superior dexterity prevent- 

 ing our |M'ople from taking as much as they would have done other- 

 wine, as they used to draw the fish outside with their bait, and also, by 

 throwing the offals of the mackerel overboard outside of the bay, they 

 used to keep the codfish from coming inshore; the injury has beeu as 

 great in proportion since the Treaty of Washington. 



7. The American vessels fishing cod on the banks cause injury to the 

 itiMhore cod fisheries first, by using trawl lines, they kill the mother- 



