1438 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Sworn to at Sr>uris,in King's County, Prince Edward Island, this 24th 

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



JAMES E. MACLEAN, 

 Justice of the Peace for King's County. 



No. 306. 



I, ANGUS B. MCDONALD, of Souris, in King's County, in Prince Ed- 

 ward Island, fisherman and trader, make oath and say : 



1. That I have been engaged in fishing out of the United States, off 

 and on, for the last twelve years. I fished one summer in an island 

 schooner, and traded one summer in an island vessel. The rest of the 

 time I was in United States vessels. 1 have not ranch acquaintance 

 with the boat-fishing. In the schooners I have fished around this island 

 principally; also at the Magdalen Islands, and for herring at New- 

 foundland, and also up Bay Chaleur, and on the New Brunswick and 

 Quebec coasts. 



2. That there are large fleets of Americans, numbering from eight hun- 

 dred to one thousand sail, engaged in the different cod fishing waters, 

 and these all get their bait along the shores of the Dominion of Canada and 

 Newfoundland, and without the bait got on these shores they could not 

 go cod-fishing. They can only get bait on their own shores for a couple 

 of months in the year, and that bait won't suit the cod-fishing on the 

 Banks, as it consists of pogies, and they get spoilt before they get down 

 to the Banks, so that now they must get herring for bait on our shores, 

 or they cannot get codfish. From Gloucester, and other places in the 

 United States, there are about four hundred sail in the winter season en- 

 gaged in fishing herring at different parts of the Dominion and New- 

 foundland shores. They freeze these herring for bait and also for their 

 city and country markets. From Bay of Islands and other parts of New- 

 foundland there are about fifty American vessels engaged in carrying 

 herring in bulk. The vessels engaged in cod fishing use about four hun- 

 dred barrels of herring each, during the run of a year, and these have 

 all to come from our shores. These herring are all caught right in on 

 the shore, all of them within a mile of the land. They are seined and 

 netted. Large quantities of the herring are also sent away by the 

 Americans from those shores to the Swedish and other foreign markets. 

 I have been engaged myself for two winters in Boston, putting up New- 

 foundland herring for California and other States. At the present 

 time and for years past the Bank cod fishing is entirely dependent on the 

 herring fishery. I have fished a great deal on the Banks j at one time 

 1 fished on the Banks of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia for three years 

 in succession, winter and summer, and as soon as our herring were done 

 we had at once to start for the British Possessions for more, or our voy- 

 age would have been at an end. 



3. That on an average each cod-fisherman takes 3,500 quintals of cod- 

 fish in the year, or 350,000 pounds weight of pickled fish, all of which 

 are caught with the herring, caught as mentioned in the last section. 

 Even the codfish caught on the George's Banks are taken with herring' 

 caught on the British shores, as also the haddock caught for the Boston 

 and other markets. I have been engaged at that business a great deal. 



4. That 1 lived in both Boston and Gloucester, and fished out of both 

 places, and boarded many of the American fishermen, and my own per- 

 sonal experience, and what I learnt from other practical fishermen with 

 whom I came in contact, all pointed to just what I have said about the 

 herring and cod fishing. 



