1982 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. What years were these ? A. I was there in 1835 and 1836, and 

 again in 1838, 1841, 1842, and 1851. 



Q. When did you go there first as captain ? A. I was captain that 

 is, my name was" so mentioned in the papers first in 1842. My brother 

 acted as captain other years. We were together, and together we owned 

 the vessel. 



Q. You and your brother were the owners ? A. Yes ; sometimes he 

 and sometimes I was master. 



Q. During the years when you fished for mackerel in the gulf, where 

 did you fish for them ? A. In 1842 I was first master, and in 1835 I 

 first" came to the gulf for mackerel. When we arrived there we could 

 hear of 110 mackerel anywhere. We went toward the Magdalen Islands, 

 and about eight miles off from them, to the southwest we got a large 

 number of mackerel the first day we were there. This induced us to 

 fish in that vicinity, and we fished between that and the West Head of 

 the Islands, as we call it, or Deadman's Island, as it is sometimes 

 called. 



Q. Is that part of the Magdalen Islands ? A. Yes ; it is the west end 

 of them. We fished there all that trip, and the result was that we got 

 about 180 barrels, speaking in round numbers. The crew received a 

 large share, and did much better than those who fished to the westward 

 that season. 



Q. Where did you fish during the remainder of the six years ! A. 

 The next year, 1836, was my second year there at the Magdalen Islands* 

 I having done so well there the years previous. I want it to be under- 

 stood that I was in a small vessel with a small crew. 



Q. Perhaps you will give the tonnage and the number of the crew ? 

 A. Her tonnage was 59, with the then reckoning, but now it would be 

 called less than 40. We went direct that year to the Magdalen Islands, 

 and we found that there had been some mackerel caught there, but none 

 within a few days of that period ; and as we had heard that mackerel 

 were sometimes taken at Newfoundland, we bore up and went over 

 there. The next day after our arrival we tried near Cape St. George, 

 but though we tried all day, we never saw one, and so we returned to the 

 Magdalen Islands, and remained there during the fishing term until we 

 obtained a full cargo 225 barrels. We afterward proceeded westward, 

 and found that vessels which had been fishing about Prince Edward 

 Island, and further up on Bradley Bank and elsewhere, had done better 

 than that ; but we were satisfied ; our voyage suited us, and we had got 

 all we wanted. 



Q. What did you do the next year ? A. The next year my brother 

 and I bought a little vessel and fished around home, and we finally con- 

 cluded to go to the Bay of St. Lawrence. We did so, and stopped there 

 some six weeks. 



Q. When was that? A. In 3833. We stopped only six weeks, and 

 we got only about twenty barrels. 



Q. Where! A. We were at the Magdalen Islands all the time. We 

 had poor sails and a poor vessel, and we found it much safer about the 

 Magdalen Islands. We always considered it safer than in the bight of 

 Prince Edward Island. 



Q. And twenty barrels were all that you got that year ? A. Yes. 

 We came home about the 20th of September. We went to the bay in 

 August, and we remained there, I think, about six weeks. 



Q. What did you do the next year? A. The next year, when I went 

 to the bay, was in 1841. 



Q. Where were yon during the intervening years? A. In 1839 I 



