AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1455. 



Sworn to at Clyde, in the county of Shelburne, this 28th day of 

 August, A. D., 1877, before me. 



WM. II Y. COFFIN,./. /. 



No. 319. 



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



of Washington. 



I, ROBERT HENRY BOLMAN, of Sand Point, in the county of Shel- 

 burne, make oath and say as follows : 



1. I have been engaged in the fisheries for twelve years. I have 

 bought codfish from American vessels and sold them herring for bait. 

 I am well acquainted with the inshore fisheries in Shelburne County. 



2. During the last three years I have supplied American fishermen 

 with bait and ice about 100 during the three years now passed. Last 

 year I have given orders to American vessels to get 175 tons; the year 

 before 275 tons. The American vessels take from 15 to 40 barrels of 

 bait to each vessel. Each American vessel takes from three to five tons 

 at each baiting. They bring a considerable quantity of their ice from 

 home, and if the weather is bad at home and they have a long passage, 

 it is more profitable to buy it here. 



3. The American vessels which are baited here fish on the Western 

 Bank, on LaHave, Roseway, and Brown's Banks, and must have fresh 

 bait if they trawl, which the greater part of them do. These vessels 

 take fish along the coast in this county within three miles of the shore, 

 during the last two years in particular. Last summer and this, Ameri- 

 can schooners have fished inshore within two miles of the shore. 

 These vessels bring in here cusk and small fish, which enables them to 

 procure funds for ice and bait instead of drawing on their owners, and 

 they are enabled to go home with a cargo of large and valuable fish. 

 Formerly the Americans threw their cusk and small fish overboard. 

 The American vessels which run in here for bait require to be baited 

 three or four times during the trip, and unless they got this bait in 

 Canadian ports they could not carry on successfully the fishing on the 

 Banks along this coast. Last year and this the number of small Amer- 

 ican vessels have increased in our inshore waters. These American 

 vessels carry about twelve men each, and go home with from four to six 

 hundred quintals of fish each. 



ROBERT HENRY BOLMAN. 



Sworn to at Sand Point, in the county of Shelburne, this day of. 



August, A. D. 1877, before me. 



JOHN PURXEY, ./. /'. 



