2092 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. It is only of late years that they have gone there for bait? A. 

 Yes. 



Q. This practice is now adopted by a large number of the fleet? A. 

 Yes, quite a number of the fleet got in. 



Q. This year a large number of the American fleet have been in ! 

 A. Not more than last year. 



Q. What proportion went in last year ? A. I should say not over 

 one- half. 



Q. Would you think that a vessel possessing salt bait would fish on 

 equal terms with a vessel possessing fresh bait? A. No. 



Q. If it took four or five days for a vessel to furnish itself with fresh 

 bait, then it would be more successful than a vessel possessing only 

 salt bait f A. Yes. 



Q. Supposing fresh bait could be obtained in three, four, or five days, 

 would a vessel obtaining that fresh bait in that time have much greater 

 advantages in catching fish over those having only salt bait ? A. If a 

 vessel could go in, get fresh bait and get back again, all in three days, 

 perhaps she would. 



Q. Two vessels fishing together, one with fresh and the other with 

 salt bait, have you any doubt as to what the result would be ? A. Their 

 chances would be about equal. 



Q. Have you ever seen it tried ? A. No. 



Q. Why do you think their chances would be equal ? A. From what 

 I have heard and from my own experience. From what I have heard 

 from my fishing captains and from observation I have made ; that is, 

 not personal observation, but from the ideas I have gained from my own 

 vessels and from the result of the vessel which did not go, and those 

 which did go to Newfoundland after bait. 



Q. What captain was it who told you that a vessel with salt bait fished 

 on equal terms with a vessel having fresh bait, and fishing alongside ? 

 A. No captain ever told me that. I never said that. 



Q. 1 understood you to say, in answer to a question Tasked you, that 

 they would fish on equal terms and that you heard that opinion from 

 some captains ? A. No. 



Q. Do you wish the Commissioner to understand that a vessel fishing 

 with salt bait alongside of a vessel fishing with fresh bait would be on 

 equal terms with that vessel as to chances to catch fish ? A. No. 



Q. Which would catch most ? A. The vessel with the fresh bait. 



Q. Decidedly so ? A. Yes. 



Q. If practical fishermen were to state that of two vessels so circum- 

 stanced, one with salt and the other with fresh bait, that having salt 

 bait would hardly catch any fish, in other words, that you cannot catch 

 fish with salt bait if there is fresh bait around, you would coincide with 

 that opinion? A. I would coincide with this: that if two fish are 

 swimming at the bottom and there is fresh and salt bait at the bottom, 

 the chances are that the fish would go to the fresh bait first. 



Q. Then the result would be that a vessel having fresh bait would 

 take fish in preference to the vessel with salt bait ? A. Yes. 



Q. Then it must be a great advantage to get fresh bait ? A. No. 



Q. Explain what you mean ? A. My theory is this : there is so much 

 time wasted in going in after fresh bait that the difference in the catch 

 between salt and fresh bait does not compensate. 



Q. And the time you have taken is what ? A. I should say an aver- 

 age of ten days on each trip. 



Q. If it turned out you were wrong in that opinion, your conclusion 

 would fall to the ground because your premises were wrong? A. Yes; 



