1760 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Digby Neck, with Briar Island and Long Island, are valuable fishing 

 grounds. The Two Islands, in 1876, exported about $200,000 worth of 

 fish. This district is frequented by small American schooners, who fish 

 for cod, halibut, pollock, and herring. 



Mr. Payson's evidence is corroborated by that of Mr. B. H. Euggles, 

 of Briar Island, Digby, Nova Scotia. 



Page 407. Mr. John C. Cunningham, of Cape Sable Island, Nova Sco- 

 tia, says in evidence that United States fishermen take halibut off Shel- 

 barne "County, within three miles of the shore, say li to 2 miles. A full 

 fare is about 800 quintals ; take two fares in three months. 



These witnesses were examined orally, and nearly all, if not all, ably 

 cross-examined. 



The following are from the British affidavits, also to show the extent 

 of coast used by United States fishermen : 



J. E. Marshall, a native of Maine, was 10 years master United States 

 fishing vessel : 



1. The fishing by American schooners was very often extensive from 1852 to 1870. Dur- 

 ing that period the number of American vessels which have visited the shores of the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence for fishing purposes, yearly, amounted from 300 to 500 sails. This I have 

 seen with my own eyes. All these were mackerel-fishing. The places where the Ameri- 

 cans fished most during that period were on the shores of Cape Breton, Prince Edward 

 Island, New Brunswick, and on the shores of Bay of Chaleur from Port Daniel to Dalhousie, 

 and east from Port Daniel to Bonaventure Island, in Gaspe Bay, and on the south shore of 

 Gaspe" from Cape Rozier to Matane, arid on the north shore from Moisie to Gadbont River. 

 I have fished myself nearly every year in these places, and I never missed my voyage. 



Jas. A. Nickerson, master mariner, Nova Scotia : 



4. My best catches were taken off the north coast of Cape Bretou, from Shittegan to Han- 

 ley Island, Port Hood, and I never caught any of the fish to speak of beyond three miles 

 from the shore. I am certain, and positively swear, that fully nine-tenths, and I believe 

 more than that proportion, of my eutire catch was taken within three miles of the shore ; the 

 nearer to the shore I could get, the better it would be for catching fish. One reason of that 

 is that the mackerel keep close inshore to get the fishes they feed on, and these little fishes 

 keep in the eddies of the tide quite close to the shore. 



9. Thee American fishermen get their catches in the same place we did. They took 

 the fish close in to the shore, that is, by far the larger proportion of them, and the opinion 

 among the American fishermen was universal that if they were excluded from fishing within 

 these three miles off the shore, they might as well at once abandon the fishery. 



John L. Ingrahain, Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, fish merchant : 



I have seen at one time two hundred American fishing-vessels in this harbor. In the 

 summer of eighteen hundred and seventy-six I have seen as many as thirty at one time. 



i. These vessels fish often within one-half mile of the coast, north and east of Cape 

 Breton, and all round. 



til. American fishermen come around the southern and eastern coast of Cape Breton by 

 dozens through the caual aud Bras d'Or Lake, and wherever it suits them. 



Daniel McPhee, fisherman, Prince Edward Island : 



. That I have personally been engaged in the mackerel and cod fishing in the Gulf of 

 M. Lawrence since the year 1H63. 



'1 hat in the year 1S63 I commenced mackerel fishing in the American vessel Messina, 

 nd that during that year we fished in the Bay Chaleur, and took home with us six hun- 

 barrela of mackerel during the fishing season of that year, one-third of which quantity, 

 ould I nay, was caught within three miles of the shore. 



I hat about "200 of the American vessels get their bait on the Nova Scotia coast, and, 

 ion, without the bait obtained there they could not carry on the fishing, 

 there i* also a fleet of 40 American vessels which fish off Grand Manan. They 

 ill of herring per vessel, which are caught close to the shore. 



Chaa. W. Dunn, fisherman, Prince Edward Island : 



I. That I have b*n engaged in fishing for about twenty-eight years, winter and summer, 



> and vessels, having fished in the cod-fishing on the Banks for about seven 



I Lave also fished mackerel in the gulf with the Americans, from the summer ot 



71, and also >n the halibut fishery on these coasts. 



1. At Anticouti we could often see the halibut on the bottom when we. were trawling. 



