AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1847 



ters were there and ran the risk of seizure ; and that was to them a 

 dreadful occurrence the forfeiture of the vessel. They knew the dan- 

 gers, and yet they ran the risk. ; Tnese men knew their business, aud 

 would not incur the risk to their property without obtaining a return. 

 And what was the reason? They could not do without the inshore 

 fisheries, and rather than go home without a catch, they ran the risk of 

 seizure. 



It is said, on behalf of the United States, that during the last few 

 years, notwithstanding the American fishermen have been free to go 

 into any portions of the bay, they could not make catches. Let uie 

 dispose of that at once. If it be true that the Americans have gone 

 into the bay since the treaty went into operation, aud failed to get large 

 catches, it has resulted from the ruinous system of purse seining, a SJ& 

 tern which has destroyed the fisheries on their own coast, and will do so 

 everywhere else. The effect, as has been graphically described by a 

 number of witnesses, has been such that all the fish which can be 

 gathered in the net, which is swept round for a mile or more, are taken 

 in that tremendous seine thousands of barrels at a time ; they can 

 only take out so many at a time, in the interval a large portion die and 

 are unfit for food. It is a most disastrous mode of carrying on any fish- 

 ery, and must be ruinous ; and I hope, for the sake of the United States 

 themselves, and the fishermen who carry on the fisheries, that the day 

 will come, and will soon come, when the destructive purse-seine fishing 

 will be prohibited. 



There is one requisite, without which purse seining in our own waters 

 is an utter failure there must be deep water, or if there is not very 

 deep water, there must be a smooth bottom. In the gulf there is not 

 very deep water, aud the bottom is exceedingly rough. Because some 

 among American fishermen got exceptionally large catches with purse- 

 seines oft the United States shores, they persist in using purse-seiaei in 

 'the gulf. What is the result ! The fishermen do not dare to approach 

 the shores for the purpose of using the seines. They would be quite 

 useless near the shores, and are nearly so in the body of the bay. What 

 is the result ? They come back without catches, and then undertake to 

 say there is no fish in the Bay St. Lawrence. The truth is they go with 

 appliances utterly unfit to take the fish there. That is the truth about 

 the matter. I say it is the purse-seining that makes the whole diftl 

 culty ; and if they had stuck to hook and line they would have had all 

 these years back as good fishing in the bay as they could get any- 

 where. 



But, under all the circumstances, can they get on without the r 

 enter the shore fisheries ? The moment they get into the shore fisheries 

 they get full fares. There is no conflict of testimony upon that poti 

 And for this reason. We have shown by a mass of testimony 

 there are no large catches to be made without the right to go inn 

 What is the evidence brought to contradict that t It is evidem 

 by men who have not caught any fish inshore. Very few haw 

 taken to say that they have gone inshore and failed, 

 mony has shown that the American fishermen cannot get MOD 

 the inshore fisheries. 



In estimating the value, if it be true that their own codfishory c 

 be carried on without our bait ; if it be true they cannot supp 

 own market with mackerel from the American shores without 

 supply from the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and that they cannot gel 

 erel in the gulf without going inshore, we make out our 



