AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1745 



Purcell, p. 198. Fifty vessels fishing and catching each 1,000 bar- 

 rels. 



McLean, p. 235. In Bay of Fundy, 100 to 125 American vessels fish- 

 ing for herriug in winter, and Catching 7 to 10 million herrings, which 

 went to Eastport. 



Lord, p. 245. From $900,000 to $1,000,000 worth of herring caught 

 annually by Americans from Point Lepreaux, including West Isles, 

 Campobello, and Grand Manan, Bay of Fundy. 



McLaughlin, p. 254, 255, estimates at $1,500,000 the annual catch of 

 herring by Americans around the island and the mainland of Bay of 

 Fnndy. 



Halibut, pollock, hake, haddock were caught by Americans all over 

 Canadian waters, but in smaller quantity, and their separate mention 

 here would take more time and space than the matter is worth. How- 

 ever, we will see what is said concerning these different kinds in the 

 summary of evidence concerning the inshore fisheries. 



In the discharge of my duty to my government I have thought proper 

 to go over grounds which lay at the threshold of the question at issue ; 

 first, because the representatives of the United States Government had 

 selected them as a fair field for surrounding that question with artificial 

 clouds of prejudice and fictitious combination of facts and fancy ; and 

 in the second place, because I thought that the main question would be 

 better understood if the path leading to it was paved with a substantial 

 and truthful narration of the circumstances which had brought this 

 Commission together. 



The United States are bound to pay compensation not for fishing 

 generally in waters surrounded by British territory, but for being al- 

 lowed to fish within a zone of three miles, to be measured at low-water 

 mark from the coast or shores of that territory, and from the entrance 

 of any of its bays, creeks, or harbors, always remembering that they 

 "had the right to fish all around Magdalen Islands and the coast of Lab- 

 rador, without restriction as to distance. The functions of this Com- 

 mission consist in determining the value of that inshore fisheries, as 

 compared to a privilege of a similar character, granted by the United 

 States to the subjects of Her Majesty, on some parts of the United States 

 coasts, and then to inquire what appreciable benefit may result to the 

 Canadians, from the admission of the produce of their fisheries in the 

 United States, free of duty, in excess of a similar privilege granted to 

 the United States citizens in Canada ; and if such excess should be as- 

 certained, then to apply it as a set-off against the excess of the grant 

 made to the United States over that made to the subjects of Her Maj- 

 esty. 



As the learned Agent and counsel, representing the United States, 

 have often criticised the acts of the colonists, when they constrained the 

 Americans to execute the treaties and to obey the municipal laws, first 

 of the separate provinces, and then of the Dominion, probably with the 

 object of contrasting the liberality of their government with the illiberal- 

 ity of our own, I would like to ask which of the two governments went 

 more open-handed in the framing of the fishery clauses of the Treaty of 

 Washington ? Did we restrict the operations of the Americans to any 

 latitude or geographical point over any part of our waters f Not f 

 We admitted them everywhere ; while on their part they marked 

 39th parallel of north latitude on one of their coasts, to wit, the easl 

 sea-coast or shores, as the herculean column beyond which we could 

 be admitted. The immediate and practical consequence was that j 

 granted the liberty to fish over 11,900 miles of sea-coasts, where the 



HOP 



