AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2013 



One other thing I will say. It was asked of me by that commitU* 

 Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, inquired, " Would your i>eople be ftatianed if 

 they would allow you to fish where you have a mind to and have a 

 license?" I said that would depend a great deal upon the cowl of the 

 license. " Well," he said, " fifty cents a ton." I said I believed they 

 would be satisfied to pay fifty cents a ton for a license to flah. On a 

 vessel of 70 or 80 tons that would not amount to a great deal. Well, 

 he did not tell me such would be brought about, but it finally wan, and' 

 our vessels went down and paid fifty cents. But that charge wan in- 

 creased in after years, and it got so big it seemed to take too much 

 money. 



Q. Then they trespassed ? A. I suppose they trespassed after that. 



Q. Well, these mackerel people went down to induce the legislature 

 to continue the Reciprocity Treaty. You didn't want that, but you 

 wanted a duty on codfish ? A. Yes ; I own up to that. I gave my rea- 

 sons before that committee. 



By Mr. White way: 



Q. I think you said you were engaged in fi.shing on the Labrador. 

 How many years were you there? A. I was there in 18L'0, 18U1, 18*23. 

 That was all that I was in Labrador really fishing. 1 went in 1849 and 

 '50 down there. I went in '49 aud took three gentlemen with me in pur- 

 suit of objects of natural history, and I manufactured cod-liver oil. 



Q. I think you said you went down in a schooner, that the schooner 

 went into harbor, and the small boats fished outside close to the shore T 

 A. Yes; during the caplin season they made something liKe four or 

 five trips a day. When I first went down there I was a small boy 11? 

 years old. I went as cook and cooked for ten men. We arrived in the 

 harbor before the caplin. We lay in Wood llarbor, and before the cap- 

 lin came to our place, we sent down southward along the coast aud got 

 what caplin we could before they reached us. After the caplin reached 

 us we could catch them anywhere in the little coves aud arms and en- 

 tuaries. 



Q. The caplin were then as plentiful as on the coast of Newfound- 

 land? A. They were immensely plentiful. I have seen them come in 

 as thickly as you could draw fish in a seine. Then the boats went out 

 with two men ; our boats were not very large ; they would carry about 

 500 Labrador fish. We would go out before breakfast ami get a big 

 load before breakfast-time. Those that had the best luck would get the 

 first cut at breakfast. Then they would go again and ex|*>ct to be i 

 before dinner, then again in the afternoon, and perhaps they would go 

 the fourth time, and so take three or four boat loads and part of anothn . 

 That is the way we carried on the fishing while the caplin lasted, 

 passed by us and went north. After the capliii deposited their spa 

 they became unfit to use. 



Q. Well, that lasted about five weeks? A. No, sir; my expei 

 was, in all those years, the height of the caplin only last 

 three weeks. 



Q. That was during your experience of three years 



Q. Beyond the years that you have mentioned here t 

 the gulf or at the Banks you have had no practical expei 

 bavl on our own coasts. On the Grand Bank I have been lour 

 Three codfish voyages at Labrador, three codhsh voyages 

 of Saint Lawrence, and six mackerel voyages in the On" 

 rence. That is all I have been in these waters. The rest 

 fishing off the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts. 



