1390 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



important to our fishermen. Herring are caught altogether inshore. 

 The Americans do not prosecute herring fishery to any great extent 

 now, but should they do so at any time, as under the Treaty of Wash- 

 ington they may, they would very greatly injure the grounds, and their 

 competition would be a great loss and injury to our fishermen, who are 

 now profitably engaged in the business. 



13. The mackerel spawn near the shore, and must necessarily feed 

 near the shore, as the small fish upon which they feed only frequent 

 shoal water. 



14. It is unquestionably a very great advantage to American fisher- 

 men to be allowed to land and dry their nets and cure their fish. And 

 a'still greater advantage to be permitted to transship cargoes, because it 

 enables them to land their fish and refit for another voyage at our ports, 

 without returning to the States, and greatly saves time during the sea- 

 son. It also affords a reasonable likelihood of building up a profitable 

 trade for the Americans by preserving the fish iu ice and transshipping 

 them fresh to the American markets. 



15. It is one of the greatest advantages which the Americans gain 

 under the Treaty of Washington to procure bait iu our waters and ports. 

 Most of this is purchased from our traders ; but the Americans only 

 adopt this mode of obtaining it, because it is more profitable to them 

 than catching it. Our own fishermen procure it with much greater 

 facility than the Americans can, and it would be a serious drawback for 

 them to have to catch it now, and would involve extra time and extra 

 outfit. 



16. It would be nearly, if not quite, impossible for the American fish- 

 ermen to carry on cod fishing and other deep-sea fisheries around our 

 coast if deprived of the privilege of resorting to our ports for bait. 

 Their bait will only last three weeks on ice, and to be entirely depend- 

 ent on their own ports for this would be destructive of all profits in the 

 business. 



17. Another great advantage to Americans under the treaty is the 

 privilege of resorting to our ports for ice, which they obtain from our 

 traders every season. 



18. The cash value of the privileges accorded to American fishermen 

 in respect of our fishing grounds can be measured by the value of our 

 fisheries to them; for if they were deprived of them, their cod fishing 

 would be ruined, and their mackerel fisheries in the gulf at least be 

 greatly crippled. 



19. I know of no advantage which Canadian fishermen derive from 

 the privilege of fishing in American waters, and I never heard of any 

 Canadian vessel going to fish iu these waters, save that I read an 

 account this spring iu an American paper of one vessel that had been 

 fitted out at Lunenburg for that purpose. 



L'O. I do not consider the privilege of sending our fish into American 

 markets free of duty anything like an equivalent for the use of our fishing 

 grounds. Iu fact, it is only a trifling advantage to us anyway. 



WILLIAM D. SMITH. 



Sworn to at Port Hood, in the couutv of Inverness, this 20th day of 

 July, A. D. 1877, before me. 



JOHN McKAT, J. P. 



