AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1769 



218. Wallace Trask, Little Kiver, Digby County. 



218. Geo. E. Mosely, Tiverton, Digby County. 



220. Gilbert Merrit, Sandy Coye, Digby County. 



221. Joseph E. Denton, Little River, Digby County. 



221. John McKay, Tiverton, Digby County. 



222. Whitfield Outhouse, Tiverton, Digby County. 



222. John W. Snow, Digby, Digby County. 



223. James Patterson Foster, Port Williams, Annapolis. 

 223. Byron P. Ladd, Yarmouth, Yarmouth. 



225. Samuel M. Ryerson, Yarmouth, Yarmouth. 



240. Thomas Milner, Parker's Cove, Annapolis. 



240. James W. Cousins, Digby Town, Digby. 



More than seven weeks before the United States Agent closed his case, 

 we produced two of the most intelligent and respectable men in the dis- 

 trict. While Mr. Dana was cross-examining them, his countrymen were 

 on the shores of Digby fishing with their vessels. A messenger in a few 

 hours could have detected any exaggeration in their statements. From 

 that hour to the end of their case not one word of all that evidence has 

 been contradicted or shaken. These New England fishermen continue 

 under the Treaty of Washington to pursue their ancient calling and 

 their number is increasing on the western and southern shores ot Nova 

 Scotia and at Grand Manan, and all around the Bay of Fundy. 



Mr. Dana calls this practical pursuit of the fisheries in British waters 

 a franchise, an incorporeal faculty. Call it what you will, is it not a great 

 advantage to his countrymen ? Is it not the salvation of the State of 

 Maine ? Is it not affording an increasing number of Americans safe and 

 steady employment ? These fisheries do not fail. I invite the careful 

 attention of the Commission to pages 399 and 412 of the British evidence. 

 Are these fisheries not supplying cheap and wholesome food to citizens 

 of the United States? Is it not making hardy sailors of her stalwart 

 sons ? Mr. Dana can appreciate that. Mr. Foster says he fails to find 

 any evidence, except as to the bend of Prince Edward Island and Mar- 

 garee. Can you " pencil in hand," measure by arithmetic the benefit of 

 the right of fishing to the people of a whole coast who have been trained 

 to no other pursuit, and whose families are dependent on the return 

 of the boats from Brier Island and the other coast of Nova Scotia T 



What goes on here at one extremity of these wonderfully varied and pro- 

 lific fisheries is going on at the other extreme at Gaspe and the mouth 

 of the St. Lawrence, and at all other points varied by the circumstances 

 of place. 



I wish to call your attention to an error shall I say a geographical 

 error? of our learned friends. The learned Agent for the United States 

 says he can figure this question up pencil in hand, lie admits with all 

 the assistance of Mr. Babson and his figures (which are not evidence at 

 all) he admits one link in the chain of his argument is wanting the 

 Port Mulgrave returns of 1875. Does the learned Agent know that the 

 Port Mulgrave returns are entirely incomplete. Mr. Foster seems to be 

 laboring under the delusion that every American fisherman reports him- 

 self as he passes through the Strait of Canso. This is really not the 

 case. Look at the map and read the evidence and then see if it is i>os- 

 sible to say how many fishermen never sail in the direction of the straiit. 

 All round the eastern and northern side of the Island of Cape Hrt't< 

 there are the finest mackerel grounds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence or tl 

 world. No United States witnesses could be produced to call this 

 gerous coast. There are a number of fine harbors the ancient i>or 

 Louisburg among the number open all winter. This lattvr port 



