AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1403 



weeks they could do nothing with their cod-fishing, and it would be im- 

 possible to carry it on profitably. 



12. I could not tell in figures just what the money-value is to each 

 American fishing-vessel to be allowed to fish in our waters and get bait 

 and supplies, but I do not think it is too much to say that it is worth 

 nearly as much as their entire fisheries at present on these ground*, 

 for without these privileges they would find it very difficult, without 

 violating the law, to carry on fishing of any kind profitably in the gulf 

 or around the British-American coast. They could not possibly take a* 

 many trips, nor could they carry on their business with any facility. 



13. I know of no advantage of any kind which our Canadian fisher- 

 men gain from being able to fish in American waters. I have heard 

 American fishermen admit that our grounds were the richest ami lx?st. 

 I have never heard of any Canadian or British vessel going to Ameri- 

 can waters for the purpose of fishing, nor can I imagine any reason to 

 induce them to do so. 



14. If our fishermen had the exclusive right to fish in our own waters 

 on the British-American coast, and no American fishermen were allowed 

 to compete, I am certain we would be able to catch more fish every 

 year and make more profits out of the business. Our fishing grounds 

 would also be better preserved, because our fishermen carry on their 

 fishing with much greater care and do not destroy the grounds as the 

 American fishermen do, by throwing offal overboard and using purse 

 seines. 



WILLIAM WATTS. 



Sworn to at Port Hood, in the county of Inverness, this 21st day of 

 July, A. D. 1877, before me. 



JOHN McKAY, /. /'. 



No. 268. 



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



of Washington. 



I, JOSHUA SMITH, of Port Hood Island, in the county of Inverness, 

 Cape Breton, fisherman and trader, make oath and say as follows : 



1. I am a member of the firm of J. & H. Smith, which has been ac- 

 tively engaged in the occupation of fishing and supplying fishermen for 

 the past fifteen or twenty years, and I have had ample opportunities ol 

 becoming familiar with the general business done on the coast of Cape 

 Breton. Our firm has dealt in mackerel, codfish, haddock, hake, and 

 herring to the value of over $3,000 annually. 



2. I have known as many as five hundred sail of United States I 

 ing-vessels engaged in the fisheries around the Island of Cape Breton. 

 This was during the Eeciprocity Treaty from 1854 to 1S(J4. After that 

 treaty terminated the number of American vessels very much decreased. 

 These have fished around the coast of Cape Breton, Antigonish I 

 Prince Edward Island, Magdalen Islands, and the coasts of Nova S 

 proper. They take mackerel chiefly. Also codfish in large quantil 

 and herring and halibut in smaller quantites. 



3. The average tonnage of United States fishing-vessels is 

 and each of them has a crew of about fifteen men. During t 

 rocity Treaty each vessel averaged about three hundred 

 mackerel per trip and made from two to three trips per season fr 

 coast. This average was much reduced after the Reciprocity 1 



