1748 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



way, by the action of the Gulf Stream ? A. The whole of the coast of the United States 

 south of Cape Cod is affected by the Gulf Stream during the summer season. At Stoning- 

 ton the temperature is so warm, even in June, that the cod and haddock cannot remain 

 there. They are all driven off by this warm influx of the summer flow of the Gulf Stream. 

 The same observation applies to certain portions of the New England coast. (Rebuttal 

 Evidence, p. 3. ) 



The testimony of these two scientific witnesses then agrees com- 

 pletely with reference to the important question of temperature. We all 

 know of the enormous fleet annually sent by the Americans to the 

 Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the Nova Scotia Banks, and the various 

 Banks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. With the exception of the com- 

 paratively small quantity of cod taken on the United States coasts 

 in spring and fall, and on George's Shoals, the greater part of the 

 $4,831,000 worth of the cod tribe, which the tables put in by Professor 

 Baird show us to be the catch of last year of United States fishermen, 

 must necessarily have been taken in British-American waters, or off Brit- 

 ish-American coasts, for there are no other waters in which Americans 

 take this fish. 



Turning now to the mackerel, we shall find that the same prevailing in- 

 fluence, namely, that of temperature, actually defines the spawning area 

 and limits the feeding grounds of this fish. 



Col. Benjamin F. Cook, inspector of customs, Gloucester, tells the Com- 

 mission that this very year, " in the spring, out south, there was a large 

 amount of mackerel, and late this fall, when we were coming from home 

 recently, the mackerel had appeared in large quantities from Mount 

 Desert down to Block Island ; but during the middle of summer they 

 seem to have sunk or disappeared" (p. 182). 



In the portion of Professor Hind's testimony, just quoted, the cause 

 of the mackerel seeking three or four points only on the United States 

 coasts to spawn in the spring is given, which is, that there the Arctic 

 current impinges on the coast line. Cold water is then brought to the 

 surface, and as both the eggs of the cod and of the mackerel float, the 

 low condition of temperature required is produced there by this north- 

 ern current. This question of the floating of the eggs of the cod and of 

 the mackerel is very important, for when the time of spawning is con- 

 sidered, it shows from the testimony of both witnesses that the coldest 

 months in the year are selected by the cod in United States waters; and 

 the mackerel spawn only when the Arctic current or its offset insures the 

 requisite degree of cold. The same peculiarity, according to Professor 

 Baird, holds good with regard to the herring. This condition of extreme 

 low temperature, necessary for the three commercial fishes, so limits the 

 area of suitable waters off the coast of the United States that the Amer- 

 ican fishermen are compelled to come to British American coasts for 

 their supply of these fish, whether for food or for bait. 



All the American witnesses concur in the statement that the cod fish- 

 ery is the most profitable, and there is an equal concurrence of statement 

 that the cod fishery is erroneously styled an off-shore, or so-called deep- 

 sea fishery. 



I call attention to the cod fishery as pursued by the great Jersey houses, 

 wholly in small open boats, and 'almost always within three miles from 

 the shore ; to the cod fishery pursued on the 'Labrador coast, wholly in- 

 shore; on the whole extent of Newfoundland, except a small portion of 

 the western coast, also wholly inshore ; to the cod fisheries pursued in 

 the deep bays and among the islands of Nova Scotia, on the north shore 

 of the St. Lawrence, on the northern coast of Cape Breton, quite close 

 to the shore. 



That leads me, by a natural connection, to banks and shoals, for it 



