1384 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



3. When the American vessels are in fishing bait few fish can be 

 caught. The principal fishing carried on in Crow Harbor is seine and 

 net fishing. The American vessels are anchored on the seine grounds ; 

 their boats are all around the harbor and coast; the catching of bait 

 and the noise made by them by firing guns, and in other noises made 

 by them, break up the schools of mackerel, so that they are frightened 

 off, and prevent them from coming in so that the fishermen can catch 

 them. Neither can our fishermen set their nets when American vessels 

 are coming in and out, or when they are at anchor, because the anchors 

 and ships tear and destroy them. For these and many other reasons it 

 has been very injurious to our fisheries to have the Americans come in 

 for bait. In fact our fishing in this harbor is almost destroyed. For- 

 merly the mackerel fishing in this harbor was one of the best in 

 Canada. 



4. The value of our inshore fisheries is immeasurably greater to us 

 than those outshore. The whole fisheries of this bay are inshore. 



5. Since 1871, wherever the Americans have resorted for bait the 

 fishing has decreased. This is particularly the case in this harbor. 

 The failure of the fishing in this harbor during the last few years, I 

 attribute largely to the presence of the American fishermen in our har- 

 bor. 



6. Mackerel feed upon shrimp and other small fish. This food is found 

 along our shores where the mackerel feed. I think a portion of the 

 mackerel spawn or breed along the coast of Nova Scotia, but the greater 

 number spawn on the Bank and other shoal waters of the North Bay. 



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

 land and dry their fish and transship their cargoes. In this way they 

 are enabled to catch a much larger quantity of fish, and, in fact, without 

 the advantages granted by the Treaty of Washington I cannot see how 

 they could carry on the deep-sea fisheries with profit. It will at least 

 enable them to double the quantities they would otherwise catch. 



ALEXANDER McKENZIE. 



Sworn to at Crow Harbor, in the county of Guysboro', this 26th day 

 of July, A. D. 1877, before me. 



WM. S. McKENZIE, 

 J. P. for the County of Guysborough. 



No. 250. 



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



of Washington. 



I, MICHAEL ROBERTSON, of Port Jollie,iu the county of Queen's, fish- 

 erman, make oath and say as follows : 



1. I have been engaged in fishing for upwards of thirty years. I have 

 fished along the southern coast of Xova Scotia, around Cape Breton, on 

 the eastern side of New Brunswick, around Prince Edward's Island, 

 around the Magdalenes, and on tho Labrador coast, both on the Cana- 

 dian and Newfoundland coast. I am well acquainted with the inshore 

 fisheries in Queen's County. 



2. When fishing in the North Bay I have often seen from two to three 

 hundred American vessels engaged in fishing at one time. These ves- 

 sels were engaged in taking mackerel, and took the most of them inshore 

 within three miles of the shore, and it would not pay to send a vessel to 

 the North Bay unless she could catch mackerel within three miles of the 



