AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1347 



coast. I have seen tliem actually fishing and catching mackerel with 

 hand-lines inside three miles, and I heard many times the fishermen say 

 to me that they were doing very well, and sometimes two trips duriii" 

 the season by each vessel. 



5. These American fishing-vessels must have carried yearly during 

 that period at least 800 barrels. 



6. I have seen the Americans, yearly, during the Reciprocity Treaty 

 continually fishing for mackerel, and very close to the shore, from Point 

 St. Peter, all along the coast of G-aspe Bay. 



7. I have seen the Americans catching mackerel only with hand lines. 



8. The use of the seine is injurious to the fisheries, because seines take 

 all kinds of fish and of all sizes ; the small ones not being marketable 

 are thrown away and lost. 



9. The practice of Americans of throwing fish offals overboard is in- 

 jurious to our fisheries, because it gluts the fish and prevents the fish 

 from biting, and also because it poisons the water, drives the fish, and 

 kills the eggs. 



10. Our inshore fisheries are by far more valuable than the outside 

 ones. Mostly all the fish here is caught inshore. 



11. The practice of the Americans of throwing their mackerel bait 

 among our boats, and afterward retiring from the shore, has been highly 

 injurious to us, because it enticed the fish away, so that we could not 

 take mackerel afterward. They have done that as often as they got 

 a chance; it has been done to me and to my neighbors very often, there- 

 by causing us a great damage, not only in mackerel fishing, but also in 

 the cod fishery, by thus preventing us from getting bait. 



12. The food of mackerel consists of lance, sea-fleas, and small animals 

 floating in the water; this food is inshore; that is what keeps mackerel 

 inshore. Mackerel breed in the Bay of Gaspe" and feed along the shores. 



13. I consider it a great advantage to Americans to be allowed to land 

 for drying and repairing their nets or seines, and to cure their fish. 



14. I consider it a great advantage to the Americans to be allowed to 

 transship their cargoes in our harbors; because ic enables them lo keep 

 on the fishing-grounds and to double their fare. 



15. I consider that the Americans could not carry on profitably the 

 cod or halibut fisheries in our waters if they were not allowed to procure 

 bait inshore. 



16. I consider it a great advantage for the Americans to be allowed to 

 get ice in our harbors or on our shores to preserve their bait. 



17. It is no advantage to us to be allowed to go and fish in American 

 waters, and I know of none of our vessels having resorted thither for 

 fishing purposes. 



18. The privilege to Americans of transshipping cargoes is worth the 

 value of a load and sometimes of two. 



19. The value of the privilege to Americans of taking bait on our 

 shores for cod and halibut is worth to them the profits of their fish- 

 eries of cod and halibut, because without that privilege they would not 

 come. 



20. Without speaking of the drawback the presence pf Americana 

 ashore sometimes causes to our own fishermen, their presence and fish- 

 ing on our shores injures us very much, because we cannot com|ete 

 with them, on account of their being far better supplied and equipped 

 for the fisheries than we are. Ou the fishing-grounds they take all the 

 best fish, and besides they ruin our fishing-grounds. 



GEORGE PRIVKL. 



Sworn to the best of his knowledge, information, and belief, at Point 



