1616 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



dred and fifty-four was the number of licenses the first year; but when 

 the price was raised to a dollar a ton, half the number of vessels found 

 it exiHMlient to keep where they had always been allowed to go; to fish 

 remote from the shore; even to avoid doubtful localities; to keep many 

 miles out on the banks rather than pay a sum that would amount, on 

 the average, to -""TO a trip; and when the price was raised to two dollars 

 a ton hardly any of the vessels were willing to pay it. The reason why 

 thcv would Hot pay it was not that they were contumacious and defiant. 

 They were in a region where they were liable to be treated with great 

 severity, and where they had experienced, as they thought, very hostile 

 and aggressive treatment. They desired peace; they desired freedom 

 Thev did not wish to be in a condition of anxiety. Neither the captains 

 of the vessels on the sea, nor the owners of the vessels at home, had 

 any desire to feel anxiety and apprehension. The simple reason why 

 they did pay when it was fifty cents a ton and ceased to pay when it 

 became one dollar or two dollars a ton, was that the price exceeded, in 

 their judgment, the value of the privilege. There were not mackerel 

 enough taken within the inshore zone to make it worth their while to 

 give so much for it. Whatever risk they were subjected to, whatever 

 inconvenience they were subjected to from being driven off the shore, 

 they preferred to undergo. If a license to fish inshore was not worth a 

 dollar a ton in 1808 and 18G9, in the halcyon days of the mackerel fish- 

 ery, can anybody suppose it really is worth as much as that now ? But 

 fix the price of the license fee as high as you please. Go to this ques- 

 tion as a question of computation, on business principles, pencil in hand ; 

 estimate how much per ton it is worth, or how much per vessel it is 

 worth, and see to what result you are brought by the figures. Nobody 

 thinks that for some years past there have been in the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence three hundred vessels from the United States fishing for mackerel. 

 The average tonnage is put by no one at over 70 tons. That is about 

 the average of Gloucester tonnage, and the vessels that come from 

 Gloucester are larger than those that come from other places. Three 

 hundred vessels, at 70 a vessel, $21,000 per annum. Put whatever 

 you please per ton, and state the account; debit the United States with 

 that, and see what the result is when you come to consider the duties. 

 If it is called two dollars a ton, the highest price ever charged, it will 

 be about $42,000 a year. 



IH there any prospect whatever that the mackerel fishery for Ameri- 

 can vessels in the Gulf of St. Lawrence will ever become prosperous! 

 In order that it should do so, there must concur three things, of no one 

 of which is there any present probability. In the first place, there must 

 be much poorer fishing off the coast of the United States than usual, for 

 an things have been there for some years past, untjl the present year, 

 [thing for mackerel was so much more profitable than it had ever 

 been in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that there was no temptation for our 

 vemels to desert our own shores ; and off the shores of the United States 

 pining can Ue pursued, which never has been successfully followed in 

 Seining mackerel is about the only really profitable mode of 

 lab, as a business out of which money can be made to any 

 considerable amount. The days for hook-and-liue fishing have passed 

 wy, and seining is the method by which the fish must be taken if 



to be made. That has never yet been done, and is not likely 



IK- done, in the gulf. The bottom is too rough ; the water is too shal- 



Hie expedient that we were told at the beginning of the hearing 



been adopted turns out to be impracticable, for shallow seines 



alarm and frighten away the fish. The seines are not made shallow to 



