1382 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



12. The privilege of transshipping cargoes on our coasts is of great 

 value to the American mackerelers. It enables them to make a greater 

 number of trips and catch more fish than they otherwise could ; and by 

 this means they save about three weeks on each trip they make. I 

 have known an American mackereler to catch a fare of fish in the time 

 that another vessel was going to the United States and returning. 



I consider it a very great privilege to the American codfishermen to 

 be allowed to procure bait on our shores, either by purchase or by 

 catching it themselves. They consider it more profitable to buy bait 

 than to spend time in catching it ; for this reason, that their ice would 

 melt and their bait already obtained would turn sour while they were 

 fishing for more. They, therefore, obtain almost all their bait by pur- 

 chase from our fishermen. The Americans cannot profitably carry on 

 the deep-sea fishery without obtaining bait on the shores of the Dominion 

 or Newfoundland. Indeed, I do not see how they can carry on the deep- 

 sea fishery at all without obtaining bait iu Canadian or Newfoundland 

 harbors or shores. 



13. The privilege of fishing in American waters is of no practical ad- 

 vantage whatever to Canadians. 



14. The value of procuring bait on our shores is worth to American 

 codfishermen almost the whole value of their trip, as without getting 

 the bait they could not catch the fish at all. And in the winter and 

 summer seasons the Americans cannot procure bait except in Canada 

 or Newfoundland. 



15. The Canadian inshore boat fishery is injured to a great extent by 

 the American vessels carrying on their fishing operations within the 

 three-mile limit, especially by seining and throwing of bait. 



DAVID MURRAY, JR. 



The said David Murray, junior, was sworn to the truth of this affidavit 

 at Port Mulgrave, in the county of Guysborough, this 30th day of July, 

 A. D. 1877, before me. 



JAS. PURCELL, 



A Justice of the Peace. 

 No. 248. 



In tl.e matter of the Fisheries Commission at Halifax, under the Treaty 



of Washington. 



I, THOMAS CONDON, of Guysboro', in the county of Guysboro', mer- 

 chant, make oath and say as follows : 



1. I have been iu engaged in the fisheries for five-and-twenty years, 

 both for myself and others, in the county of Guysboro' and other parts 

 of the eastern coast of Nova Scotia. D\iriug that time I have been 

 actively engaged in the business, and have a general and fair knowledge 

 of the business of fishing as carried on by both the Canadians and 

 Americans. 



2. I have known as many as seven hundred American vessels fishing 

 on onr coast during one season for mackerel alone. Some years there 

 would not be so many. Their average tonnage would be from sixty to 

 one hundred per vessel. The crews would average fifteen. When the 

 fishing was good and they enjoyed the privileges now enjoyed under the 

 Treaty of Washington, each American vessel would catch on an average 

 one thousand barrels. This average I consider none too large. When 

 they fished on our coast they used to laud and refit. This enabled them 

 to catch double the quantity of fish. 



