AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 18(>9 



pleasure of meeting to-day who has worked most assiduously for the last four yer in col- 

 lecting and furnishing in his valuable reports almost all tho "information pomp-tard on the 

 subject, and without whose exertions, it is hardly too much to say, the treaty would nevr 

 have been made. 



Is not this conclusive 1 These vessels, I suppose, kept a\v;iy from the 

 three-mile limit, and they made ruinous voyages; and yet we have had 

 witness after witness declaring here on the American side that the best 

 fishing was outside of that limit, and that there was no fishing inside 

 at all. 



This is the opinion of the Boston Board of Trade on this subject. In 

 fact, we hold the key in our hands which locks and unlocks the North 

 American fisheries of both countries ; and of course it is necessary for 

 us to take care that we are not deprived of our rights without receiving 

 proper and adequate consideration. 



Your excellency and your honors will recollect that the Reciprocity 

 Treaty was not put an end to by us ; but it was put an end to by tlm 

 solemn act of the United States against the desire of Great Britain, and 

 against the wishes of the Dominion of Canada. 



On page 391 of the American evidence, the following question was 

 put to Major Low, the then witness on the stand : 



Looking up the files of the Cape Ann Advertiser, with reference to the Centennial, I 

 notice a statement relative to your fisheries, and to the effect their prosecution IMS had on 

 Gloucester, to which I would like to call your attention, to see whether you Hgree with it or 

 not. 



Of course it has been shown here before the Commission, and it is 

 well known to everybody that is acquainted with the fisheries, that this 

 paper, the Cape Ann Advertiser, is the great organ of the fishing in- 

 terests of New England. 



This article runs as follows : 



}n 1841 the fishery business of Gloucester had reached its lowes*. ebb. Only about 7,(Hti 

 barrels of mackerel were packed that year, and the whole product of the fisheries of tlm 

 port was only about $300,000. In 1851 the business began to revive, the George's and lUy 

 Chaleur fishery began to be developed, and from that time to this year, 1K?">, has been 

 steadily increasing, until at the present time Gloucester's tonnage is 10,000 tons more than 

 Salem, Newburyport, Beverly, and Marblehead united. Nearly 400 fishing-schoonera are 

 owned at and fitteJ from the port of Gloucester, by 3D firms, and tho annual sales of fish 

 are said to be between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000, all distributed from here by (Jloucester 

 houses. 



THE COMMERCIAL WHARVES. 



The wharves once covered with molasses and sugar hogsheads are now covered will 

 flakes, and the odors of the ' ' sweets of the tropics " have given place to "the ancient and 

 like smells " of oil and dried cod ; the few sailors of the commercial marine bare been MI 

 by 5,000 fishermen drawn from all the maritime quarters of the globe ; and the whi 

 were the wonders of our boyhood days are actually swallowed up in t 

 capacious piers of the present day, so much have they been lengthened and widen* 



THE SALT TRADE. 



For many years after the decline of the Surinam trade hardly a large vessel waa % 

 at Gloucester, and many persons thought that never more would a majtstic ship l> 

 taring this capacious and splendid seaport. But never iu the palmiest daj 

 foreign trade were such immense vessels seen as at the present day. . 

 (as big as six William and Henrys) sailed into Gloucester Harbor from U 

 and came into the wharves without breaking bulk, and also lay afloat i 

 More than forty ships, barks, brigs, and schooners of from 400 to 1,400 

 salt alone, have discharged at this port the present year, and also the same 

 . The old, venerable port never presented such a forest of masts as mn 

 times six ships and barks at a time, besides innumerable schooners. 



THE CITY OF GLOUCESTER OF 1875 AND THE TOWN OK 1 



What a contrast is presented, as a ship enters the harbor now, with what 

 1825 ! The little rusty, weather-beaten village, with two " meetirg-h. 



