1966 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



our first set for that. We would run until we saw that light, which we 

 reckoned to be twelve or fourteen miles off. If it was in the day-time we 

 would run until we saw the tower. That you can see about as far as 

 the light. We would anchor in about thirty fathoms of water. There 

 \ve would set trawls once, and that is about all you could get what you 

 would get once. Then from that we would shift off all the way to sixty 

 or eighty fathoms. 



Q. What is the shallowest water that trawling for halibut is practiced 

 in ? A. Well, at those times we used to think we got most of them in 

 about sixty fathoms from sixty to ninety fathoms; but now they get 

 most in 350 fathoms from 320 to 350. 



Q. Have you ever known trawling for halibut to be pursued in water 

 twenty or twenty-five fathoms depth \ A. I have caught halibut on 

 George's in ten fathoms. 



Q. With trawl or line ? A. With line, accidentally drifting over the 

 bottom when it was calm ; nothing of any amount. And I have caught 

 halibut on Seal Island grounds by laying to and drifting where the tide 

 was carrying us. We daren't anchor too near the island, because we 

 could not set trawls; the bottom was rough, and the cable would cut off. 



Q. What is the nearest to Seal Island? A. I suppose we have caught 

 halibut within seven or eight miles. 



Q. Is there any chance of pursuing halibut fishing within three miles ? 

 A. I could not say. I never saw any one. 



Q. Why not ? What is the objection ? A. The objection is that you 

 could not set a trawl there because the bottom was rough. If they got 

 the trawl stretched they could not get it again, for every hook would 

 catch. If you anchor, you are sure to lose your anchor. 



By Mr. Dana : 

 Q. Do you use hemp cables ? A. Yes. 



By Mr. Thomson : 



Q. Do you know Cape Sable Island, off the coast of Shelbume ? A. 

 Yes, sir ; I am well acquainted all around there. 



Q. You have fished there, I suppose ? A. Never but one fall. One 

 year I went down cod-fishing, what we call off Shelbume. 



Q. You do know the island that is called Cape Sable Island ! A. O, 

 yes. 



Q. Did you ever fish up close to shore there ? A. Never. 



Q. How far off that shore did you ever fish ? A. I never fished there 

 much. I have told you that one fall I fished off Shelbume. We used 

 to calculate to fish fifteen to twenty miles off, large black fish. We 

 used to get 20,000 weight of them. 



Q. Then in point of tact you never did fish close inshore at Cape Sable 

 Island ? A. No. I never was to anchor inshore. 



Q. And whether halibut were caught there or not you don't know ? 

 A. 1 don't think any halibut. 



Q.^ \ ou don't know of your own knowledge whether they are or not ? 

 A. No. 



Q. Now 1874 was the time you first became a skipper of a vessel and 

 went into the gulf? A. Yes, sir. 



Q. Had you been fishing there in former years? A. Well, I was 

 there, yes, backwards and forwards. I used to go most every year or 

 1 have been there more or less ever since I was a boy. 



Q. How often have you been in the bay before you went in 1847 ? 

 A. Before I went as skipper! 



