2050 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



By Mr. Trescot : 



Q. With regard to your cod-fishing, where did you get your bait ? 

 You say you sent one vessel cod-fishing into the Bay of St. Lawrence ; 

 what did you do with her? A. We put herring-nets on board of her. 



Q. And where did you catch the herring ? A. They fished in the 

 spring at the Magdaleu Islands and then on Banks Bradley and Orphan. 

 The nets were placed astern every nioht. 



Q. When you send a vessel cod-fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 she carries a number of nets to catch the bait required ? A. Yes. 



Q. She goes to the Magdalen Islands and fishes there until about the 

 1st of July? A. She starts in the spring and visits the Magdalen 

 Islands first ; and she catches her own bait. 



Q. And then she tishes for cod until when ? A. Until she gets her 

 trip. 



Q. And then what does she do ? A. She returns home. 



Q. In fishing for cod do you set your nets every night ? A. We catch 

 our own bait and sometimes we catch a few mackerel. 



Q. Have you fished on the Banks? A. No ; I was never cod-fishing. 



Q. Have you ever sent vessels to the Banks ? A. Yes : I did so in 

 1865. 



Q. When you did so what did they do for bait ? A. They carried 

 clams for bait. 



Q. From home ? A. Yes ; every year, 1874 excepted, when I had one 

 vessel go in for it. She did not procure her trip of fish on that account 

 and did not get home until Christmas. 



Q. You found getting bait in Newfoundland a losing business ? A. 

 Yes. 



Q. Then you do not allow your vessels to go to Newfoundland for bait, 

 but they carry their bait with them ? A. Yes. 



Q. With your experience of the mackerel fishery what do you think 

 of the privilege of catching them within three miles of the coast in Brit- 

 ish waters, as compared with the levy of duty of $2 a barrel on colonial- 

 caught fish ? A. I would prefer the latter. 



Q. If you were allowed to make your choice which would you take, 

 exclusion from the British inshore fisheries and the imposition of a duty 

 on colonial-caught fish or the privilege of fishing inshore in British 

 waters and no duty ? A. I would rather have the duty. 



Q. What do you suppose is the cost of the whole stock of a mackerel- 

 fishing vessel for a four months' trip, and what would she have to 

 catch in order to enable any profit to be made ? A. Tbe whole stock 

 would cost $4,000, and she would have to catch 400 barrels of mackerel 

 to bring things square, without making a profit. 



Q. You say that the bait which you use cod-fishing is caught on your 

 coast? A. Yes. 



Q. JIow do you catch it? A. We start about the 1st of May, in the 

 spring of the year, and go to Block Island to fish. We also go to New- 

 port, where they have traps in which they catch the fish on their first 

 coming on the coast. They thus take pogiea, alewives and squid. Po- 

 giea and herring are also take . at Provincetown. 



Q. How do you preserve your bait? A. In ice. Herring are gener- 

 ally caught for this purpose on the Maine coast. 



Q. Do I understand that on your own coast you catch enough squid 

 to supply yourselves with bait? A. The schools strike inshore in the 

 spring and about the 1st of September, and sometimes they last until 

 the end of November. 



Q. And having put the squid in ice do vou send them out in your 



