AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION 1491 



of the world than they were last summer. Herring are now selling in 

 Baltimore for $13 a barrel. Thirty years ago I used to buy No. 1 mack- 

 erel in Halifax for $4 a barrel. They now cost $18 a barrel, and I have 

 seen them selling, since the Reciprocity Treaty was signed, for $22 a 

 barrel. The reason of this is that, relative to all other employments, 

 fishing is a perilous and poor business, and that, with the progress of 

 settlement and growth of population in all these great States and prov- 

 inces, to say nothing of the increased consumption in Spain, the Medi- 

 terranean, the Brazils, and the West Indies, that all your fishermen and 

 ours can catch will scarcely supply the demand. I placed before the 

 committee a paper, signed by two American merchants carrying on 

 trade in Prince Edward Island, which proves that under the treaty 

 your mackerel fishery has flourished and expanded to an extent unex- 

 ampled in its former history. Taking two years prior to the existence 

 of the treaty, and contrasting them with the last two years, they show 

 that your mackerel fishery has grown from 250 vessels, measuring 18,150 

 tons, valued at $750,000, and manned by 2,750 men, and securing a 

 catch worth $850,000, to 600 vessels, measuring 54,000 tons, employing 

 9,000 men, and securing 315,000 barrels, worth $4,567,500. So with the 

 herring fishery it is equally prosperous. I have seen two American 

 seine boats take 500 barrels of 'herring, at Baltimore prices worth $6,500, 

 on the coast of Labrador, in a summer afternoon. The net fishing 1 is 

 also profitable. The bank earns and the mill grinds while the banker 

 and the miller sleep. The fisherman sets his net at night, and finds in 

 the morning that kind Providence, without a miracle, except the " wealth 

 of sea," that standing miracle, has loaded his nets at night with a liberal 

 hand. These fisheries, sir, are sufficient for us all. The French, who 

 are anxious to build up a powerful navy, maintain 10,000 men by their 

 bounties in these North American waters, and it is most creditable to 

 our fishermen, that in the face of these bounties and of yours, that they 

 are able, by strict economy and hardy endurance, to wrestle for a share 

 of these ocean treasures to maintain their families and increase their 

 numbers. 



'A gentleman asked, But had we not the right to fish on the Banks of 

 Newfoundland before the treaty ? 



Mr. HOWE. Yes ; but not in the Great Banks of Newfoundland and 

 along the coast-lines where the people of Newfoundland, who frequent 

 the Banks but little, catch all their codfish. Some of these bays are 

 twenty or thirty miles in width, and deeply indent the island, being 

 broken into numerous fiords or smaller bays, where fish are plenty. By 

 the treaty, American fisherman can now use all these bays, as well as 

 those upon the coasts of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and 

 Prince Edward Island. The command of the inshore fisheries gives to 

 your people the opportunity to supply themselves with bait, whether 

 they resort to the Banks or fish around the coast. 



I trust I have shown you, Mr. Chairman, that the fisheries are inex- 

 haustible and of inestimable value ; that free competition does not lower 

 the prices, and that your fishermen and the French have special aids to 

 stimulate their industry. But my great objection to the abrogation of 

 the treaty is that it throws open again a wide field of controversy. Who 

 can measure by the eye a mile, even upon the laud ? And how are your 

 fisherman to measure accurately three marine miles at sea, even in fair 

 weather ? In a fog it is impossible to do so. And the naval officers 

 who may be sent down to guard our mutual rights will be as much 

 mystified and puzzled as they were before. 



But it may be said that you gave us your inshore fisheries when we 



