1394 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



2. I have seen as many as three hundred American sail fishing for 

 mackerel during a single "season at North Bay. Each vessel would, if 

 allowed to discharge at the Strait of Causo, make from three to four 

 trips per season. If not allowed to land they would not make more than 

 from one to two. The vessel I was in one trip took only three hundred 

 barrels. This was a very small catch. We fished round Bay Chaleur, 

 on the norf h side of Prince Edward Island, on the west side of Cape 

 Breton. The average crew of each American vessel would be fifteen 

 men. The average tonnage would be from fifty tons to one hundred 

 tons. I last fished five years ago with the Americans. 



3. During the time I was fishing with the Americans we came into 

 Canadian ports for bait and ice on an average four times each season. 

 We bought ice and bait because we got it cheaper, and because it was 

 of very great advantage to the American fishermen. If we could not 

 land and procure the bait and ice in Canadian ports we could not have 

 fished, and would have been compelled to have given up the voyage and 

 returned to the United States. 



4. I have known the American vessels raise schools of mackerel 

 close inshore, and entice them out by bait. After they went out into 

 deep water the fish were lost and the vessels had to work inshore to 

 find others. I have known the American vessels to fish so near shore 

 that there was not room to lie to for to fish, and were compelled to 

 come to an anchor and spring up to their cables. I have known this 

 take place on many occasions. The practice of enticing the mackerel 

 by bait from the inshore is very bad for the people living on the Nova 

 Scotia shores. I also think the practice of baiting the mackerel in the 

 bay keeps them from coming along the shore later than they otherwise 

 would, and thus hinders our fishermen from catching them. 



5. Almost all the mackerel is caught inshore. The Americans do all 

 they can to fish inshore, and will run every risk to do so. Unless they 

 were permitted to fish inshore they could not fish mackerel with any 

 profit. 



6. The privilege of fishing in American waters by Canadians is worth 

 nothing. I believe the privileges granted to the Americans by the Treaty 

 of Washington worth half the value of the fish they catch. 



7. The right of the Americans to fish inshore is of loss to Canadian 

 fishermen, as they catch the fish which the Canadians might otherwise 

 catch, and compel them to sink their nets for the purpose of protecting 

 them from injury by the American vessels. The nets thus sunk do not 

 catch as many fish as they otherwise would. 



MATTHEW MUNROE. 



Sworn to at Whitehead, in the county of Guysborough, this 24th day 

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



JAMES A. TORY. 

 J. P. for the County of Guysborough. 



No. 258. 



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



of Washington. 



I, ISAAC W. RENNELS, of Port Hood, in the county of Inverness, 

 master mariner, make oath and say as follows: 



1. I have been engaged in the fishing business for the past twenty- 

 six years. For nine seasons I was engaged on board American fishing- 

 vessels, and fished in both American and Canadian waters. I have 



