AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1673 



the evidence, without reading much of it, on the principal points which 

 I have so far assumed, and would be quite authorized in assuming. 



In the first place, as to the cod fishery, it is a deep-sea fishery not a 

 fishery within three miles. I do not mean to say that a stray cod may 

 not be caught occasionally within that limit ; but as a business, it is a 

 deep-sea business. With your honors' permission 1 will read some of 

 the evidence on that point. 



Nathaniel E. Atwood, of Proviucetown, page 47 of the American evi- 

 dence, says : 



Q. Is the codfishery, as pursued by the Americans, exclusively a deep-sea fishery T 

 A. Well, we call it a deep-sea fishery; this is th case the Labrador coast, exempted, 

 where it is prosecuted close inshore in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, on the Grand Hanks 

 and on all the Banks between that place and Cape Cod, and away out to sea in other 

 parts. It is true that some codfish come inshore, but they do not do so to such an extent 

 as to enable the caiching of them to be made a business of. 



Wilford J. Fisher, of Eastport, page 316, says : 



Q. How about the pollock? A. The pollock is caught more off shore than in. 



Q. Then the codfish ? A. The codfish is caught almost exclusively off shore, except, 

 as I tell you, in the early spring or late in the fall there is a school of smalt codfish 

 that strikes within the limits, and the people there catch them more or less. 



Prof. Baird, on page 455, of the American evidence, says : 



Q. Take them as a whole then, they are a deep-sea fish ; I don't mean the deep sea 

 as distinguished from the Banks? A. An outside fish ? Well, they are to a very con- 

 siderable extent. The largest catches are taken offshore, and what are taken inshpre 

 are in specially-favored localities, perhaps on the coast of Labrador, and possibly off 

 Newfoundland. They bear a small proportion generally to what is taken outside, 

 where the conveniences of attack and approach are greater. 



Bangs A. Lewis, of Provincetown, page 96, American evidence, says, 

 on cross-examination, in answer to Mr. Davies : 



Q. And codfish, we all know, are taken chiefly outside of the limits ; it is a deep-sea 

 as a rule ? A. Yes. 



E. W. French, of Eastport, page 403, is asked : 



Q. What is the fishery at Grand Manan and the Bay of Fundy generally ? A. Cod- 

 fish, pollock, hake, haddock, and herring. 



Q. Are any of those fisheries entirely off-shore fisheries? A. Codfish is an off-shore 

 fishery. Hake are taken off shore. 



' Capt. Robert H. Hulbert, of Gloucester, p. 296, testifies : 



Q. And yonr codfish have not been taken within how far from land ? A. From 15 

 to 25 miles of Seal Island, and in that vicinity. 



John Nicholson, Louisburg, C. B., p. 207 of the British evidence, 

 says: 



Q. Well, cod are often canght inshore ; but would you not say cod was a deep-sea 

 fishery ? A. Yes. 

 Q. And halibut is the same ? A.. Yes. 



These are only passages selected from a large mass of testimony, 

 but they were selected because the persons who testified in that way 

 were either called by the British side, or they were persons of so much 

 experience that they are fair specimens of our view of the subject. 



Now, cod fishery is the great trade and staple of the United States, 

 and is growing more and more so. The small fish that were once thrown 

 overboard are now kept. The oil is used a great deal, codfish oil, and 

 there are manufacturing establishments in Maine, Connecticut, and 

 Massachusetts which, we have been told by the witnesses, work up a 

 great deal of this material that used to be thrown overboard ; they draw 

 oil from it, and the rest is used for fertilizing the laud, and that is a 



