AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



tous of ice to save it from being destroyed. This ice could not have 

 been supplied anywhere nearer than Cape Sable or Liverpool and there 

 would have been great risk of losing the tish in attempting to reach that 

 place. I was the only one who could supply this at ProsiK'ct and 

 shipped it at the usual rate of $2.50 per ton, and this whole fare of hali- 

 but was thus saved and $3,700 at Gloucester. Two fares of halibut 

 were saved in the same way by my supplying ice at Prospect, last year. 



I never carried on the mackerel fishery in the waters of the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, but I am aware, from the United States fishermen them- 

 selves, that they catch their mackerel within the three mile limit, a.s 

 they term it, on our coasts. I never heard anything to the contrary from 

 any mackerel fishermen. 



About 100 American cod-fishermen on an average are supplied at 

 Prospect with bait and ice, and very often they run in from the cod- 

 fishing ground on our coast in eight or nine hours for a fresh supply, 

 and usually run in three or four times, on an average, from the Western' 

 Bank, and about twice, on an average, from the Grand Bank of New- 

 foundland. Many of the American cod-fishermen fishing on the latter 

 Bank are supplied with fresh bait and ice at Causo, which is more con- 

 venient than the Newfoundland coast in May and June for that pur- 

 pose. 



W. B. CHRISTIAN. 



Sworn to at Halifax, in the couuty of Ilalifax, this 31st day of August, 

 A. D. 1877, before me.' 



JOUX DOULL. .7. 7'. 



No. 272. 



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



of \\ ashingtou. 



I, ALEXANDER MCDONALD, of Port Hood Island, in the couuty of In- 

 verness, fisherman and trader, make oath and say as follows : 



1. I have been engaged in fishing and in a fish tradiuge stablishment 

 for the past fifteen years, and have had large opportunities for personal 



observations and experience in the business. 



2. Under the Reciprocity Treaty I have known as high as five hundred 

 or five hundred and fifty American vessels engaged in fishing on this 

 coast during one season. After the Reciprocity Treaty the number IHV 

 came much less. These have carried on fishing on the coast of Xova 

 Scotia and Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and the Magdalen Is- 

 land and Gasp6. Each vessel averages about GO or 70 tons, and has a 

 crew of about fifteen men. They fish for mackerel and codfish chiefly, 

 but catch some hake, halibut, and herring. 



3. The American vessels usually carry about three hundred barrels of 

 mackerel per trip each vessel, and from COO to 1,000 quintals of codfish. 

 They make on an average three trips per season. During the Recipro- 

 city' Treaty the price of mackerel was about 815, American currency, per 

 barrel. 



4. The cod fishery on this coast is about the same as usual. 



has been something of a falling off in the mackerel fishery in this pai 

 during the past year or two, but I do not regard this as permati 

 I believe that mackerel always exist in great quantities along on: 

 and I know no reason why there should not be as productive a c; 

 ing the next eight years as in the eight years past. The pro*i>e< 



