1414 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Fish are uselessly destroyed and the schools broken up and driven away 

 bv this practice. 



'5. From 1871 to 1S74 the mackerel fishery in the gulf was fair. Their 

 scarcity in 187.J and 187G was owing to the variableness of the fish, which 

 are sometimes scarce for a year or two, and then come in again as thick 

 as ever. The prospect this year is very good, and quite a fleet of Ameri- 

 can vessels is already in the bay, and in all probability there will be 

 three hundred or four hundred of them here this season, as there are no 

 mackerel on their own coasts. I saw an American vessel, called the 

 Easteru Queen, take from their seine at one catch what I was afterwards 

 informed by the crew amounted to one hundred barrels of mackerel. On 

 Sunday last four American mackerelers got very good catches ; two of 

 them got one hundred barrels each, and the other two got eighty and 

 fifty barrels, respectively. 



o". The inshore mackerel fishery is, to a large extent, within 3 miles 

 of the shore, and I estimate that two-thirds of the mackerel caught by 

 American fishermen on our coasts is taken within 3 miles of the shore ; 

 and I have no hesitation in saying that the inshore fishery is of far 

 greater value than the outside, so far as the mackerel are concerned, 

 and the herring fishery is almost altogether ir shore. 



7. Our boat fishery is much hindered by the Americans running in 

 among the boats and drawing the fish off shore by means of throwing 

 bait, and the bait they use is much better than what our fishermen 

 have; thus they are enabled to entice away the fish, as the mackerel 

 will follow the best bait. I think it would be better for our fishermen 

 to have the inshore fisheries to themselves, even if the Americans put a 

 heavy duty on fish. 



8. The Americans cannot profitably carry on the cod and other deep- 

 sea fisheries without resorting to our shores for bait, of which they buy 

 a large quantity from our fishermen and merchants. 



9. The privilege of fishing in American waters is of no advantage 

 whatever to Canadian fishermen, and I have never heard of Canadians 

 availing themselves of it. 



10. The spawning and breeding places of the mackerel are principally 

 in shoal water and inshore. I am of opinion that the great gale of 1873 

 may to some extent have caused the scarcity of mackerel in the gulf 

 during the years 1875 and 1876, by driving out'and destroying the small 

 fish on which the mackerel feed. 



11. Of late years the Americans are getting a good many halibut on 

 the shores of Anticosti and near the Seven Islands, in the Lower Saint 

 Lawrence. 



ROBERT DEAGLE. 



The said Robert Deagle was sworn to the truth of this affidavit at 

 Harbor au Douche, in the county of Autigonishe, this 28th day of July, 

 A. D. 1877, before me. 



EDWARD CORBET, 



A Justice of the Peace. 



No. 280. 



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



of Washington. 



I, JAMES CAREY, of Port Mulgrave, in the county of Guysborough 

 and I rovince of Nova Scotia, fisherman and trader, make oath and say 

 as follows: 



