1708 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



wish particularly to impress upon this Commission the fact of the cod- 

 fish being so taken close inshore, because it has been asserted, both in 

 the United States Answer and in the arguments of ray learned friends 

 on the other side, that the cod fishery is a deep-sea fishery, and not car- 

 ried on within territorial waters. Add to this, then, the large catch of 

 fish by the French vessels upon the coast, and of the French and United 

 States vessels upon the Banks, the former, according to the statistics 

 handed in by Professor Hind, averaging for a period of 8 years 217 

 vessels with 8,729 men ; the latter forming a very large portion of the 

 entire fishing fleet of the United States. Some approximate idea may 

 thus be arrived at of the great wealth extracted from the Newfound- 

 land fisheries. And it will no longer be a matter of surprise that this 

 well-named Eldorado should have excited the cupidity of the French 

 and of the United States. 



The above includes the whole fishery of Newfoundland, Labrador, 

 and the Banks. It will be seen what proportion of it is exclusively taken 

 within the inshore limits thrown open to United States citizens by the 

 Treaty of Washington, by the statements of Judge Bennett and Mr. 

 Eraser, whose evidences will be found on pages 134 and 169, and who 

 testify that it amounts, according to the statistical returns of the island, 

 to $0,000,000 per annum, taken by 15,000 men, excepting, as I before 

 mentioned, about eight or ten thousand quintals, which may possibly 

 be taken outside the three-mile limit, and in some cases, as Judge Ben- 

 nett tells us. within hailing distance of the fishermen's homes. 



I have so far given concisely the result of these fisheries in the past, 

 and their present annual product, from which may be formed an idea of 

 their probable yield in the future, and these annual results are derived 

 from the evidence of witnesses, whose testimony is incontrovertible 

 which no attempt has been made to assail. I would now draw attention 

 to the evidence of scientists, who have been examined before this Com- 

 mission. Professor Baird, called on the part of the United States, says 

 that he, with a force of experts, naturalists, and gentlemen interested 

 in the biology of fishes, has been engaged for five years in the prosecu- 

 tion of enquiries into the condition of the fisheries, and that his prin- 

 cipal object has been to ascertain what natural, physical, or moral causes 

 influenced fish. " I think," says he, "the cod at the head of fish at the 

 present day. There is no fish that furnishes food to so many people, 

 the production of which is of so much importance, or which is applied 

 to such a variety of purposes. The commercial yield is very great, and 

 its capture is the main occupation of a large portion of the inhabitants 

 of the sea-coast region of the Northern Hemisphere." As far as he can 

 ascertain, there is a partial migration of the codfish. They change their 

 situation in search of food, or in consequence of the variation of tem- 

 perature, the percentage of salt in the water, or some other cause ; and 

 lit the south of Cape Cod the fishery is largely off shore ; that is, the fish 

 are off the shore in the cooler waters in the summer, and as the temper- 

 ature falls toward autumn, they come in and are taken within a few 

 miles of the coast. The fish generally go off-shore in the winter, but on 

 the ioutk coast of Newfoundland they maintain their stay inshore, or else 

 come in in large abundance ; and the professor refers to the coast of Lab- 

 rador and Newfoundland ax specially favored localities as places inshore' 

 where, among others, the largest catches of cod are taken, and, says 

 the professor (p. 478 of United States Evidence), " it is certainly a no- 

 torious fact that herring are much more abundant on the coast of New- 

 foundland than they are on the coast of the United States; though 

 whether the herring that are wanted on the United States coast could 



