16'04 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



the other side earlv as one of the most successful fishermen that ever 

 was in the tilf. He speaks of the largest season's fishing any man ever 

 had in the bay, 1,~>15 barrels. He says, "I got the mackerel the first trip 

 at Orphan's and the Magdalens; the second trip at the Magdalens ; 

 the third trip at Fisherman's Bank; and I ran down to Margaree and 

 cot L'l."> barrels there, and went home.'' All the mackerel at Margaree, 

 he savs, were caught within two miles of the shore, within the admitted 

 limits, 'itecall the evidence of Sylvauus Smith and Joseph Eowe, ex- 

 perienced and successful fishermen, who tell you chat they cared little 

 for the privilege of fishing within three miles of the laud ; that they did 

 not believe that vessel-fishing could be prosecuted successfully there, 

 because it required deeper water than is usually found within the dis- 

 tance of three miles to raise a body of mackerel sufficient for the fisher- 

 men on a vessel to take the fish profitably; that boat-fishing is a wholly 

 distinct thing from vessel-fishing; that boats may anchor within three 

 miles of the land and pick up a load in the course of a day, at one spot, 

 where mackerel would be too few aud too small for a vessel with fifteen 

 men to fish to any advantage. Almost all the evidence in this case 

 of fishing within three miles of the shore relates to the bend of Prince 

 Edward Island aud to the vicinity of Margaree. As to the bend of the 

 island it appears, in the first place, that many of our fishermen regard it 

 as a dangerous place, aud shun it on that account, not daring to come 

 as near the shore as within three miles, because iu case of a gale blow- 

 ing on shore their vessel would be likely to be wrecked. It appears, 

 also, that even a large part of the boat fishing there is carried on more 

 than three miles from the shore. Undoubtedly many of the fishermen 

 have testified to the contrary; many of the boat-fishermen from the 

 island have testified that nearly all their fish were caught within three 

 miles; still it does appear, by evidence that nobody can controvert, that 

 a great part of the boat-fishing is more than three miles out. One of 

 the witnesses from the island, James McDonald, says, iu his deposition, 

 that from the middle of September to the first of November not one 

 barrel in five thousand is caught outside the limits, and he gives as a 

 reason that the water will not permit fishing any distance from the 

 snore because it is too rough. But it is perfectly obvious that a man 

 who so testifies either is speaking of fishing iu the very smallest kind of 

 iKjats. little dories that are not tit to go off three miles from the shore, 

 and, therefore, knows nothing of vessel or large boat fishing, or else that 

 he is under the same delusion that appears in the testimony of two other 

 witnesses to which I referred iu another connection. McXeill, who, on 

 pHge 4J of the British affidavits, describes the three-mile limit thus : "A 

 line drawn between two points, taken three miles off the Xorth Cape 

 and Kast Point of this island ;" and John A. McLeod, on page 228, who 

 defines the three mile limit as u a line drawn from points three miles off 

 the headlands." When a witness comes here and testifies that after 

 September not one barrel of mackerel in five thousand is taken outside 

 the three mile limit because it is too rough to go so far out, he is 

 ither speaking of a little cockleshell of a boat that is never fit to go out 

 on- than one or two miles, or else he retains the old notion that the 

 leadhuul-line is to be measured from the two points, and that three 

 nleH outside that line (which would be something like twenty-live or* 

 thirty rnih-M out from the deepest part of the bend of the island) is the 

 territorial limit. 



Mr. TbOMSON. If you will read the other portion of his deposition, you 

 I nee that your statement is not quite fair. 



FOOTER. " That the fish are nearly all caught close to the shore, 

 ishing-ground being about one and one-half miles from the 



