2106 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. Had you an opportunity to consult many of your crew ? A. I saw 

 some of the men who went with me on some of my voyages ; and for 

 some facts, I had to depend on my own memory. In some cases I went 

 to the inspector were we packed and learned the amount of fish our 

 vessel packed on a certain year. 



Q. Did you consult any of these men as to whether any proportion of 

 your catch was taken in 1857, within the limits ? A. Xo. I did not see 

 any of the men who were with us that year. 



Q. You have harbored a good deal at Malpeque, and you used to drift 

 oft from there ; but your impression is that you caught no fish within 

 the 3-mile limit while doing so ? A. I do not say that I harbored a good 

 deal there ; but I was there perhaps 3 or 4 times during the season. 



Q. You went to Bank Bradley that year? A. Yes. 



Q. When you fished on Bank Bradley, how long would yon remain 

 there ? A. I have been there for a fortnight or 3 weeks at a time. 



Q. Would that be an exceptional circumstance ? A. It might be so in 

 my case, because I never made a business of fishing altogether on Bank 

 Bradley. I fished there and at the Magdalen Islands. 



Q. You mentioned Bank Bradley very often in your evidence ? A. 

 Yes. 



Q. Taking the general average, how long did you remain there ? A. 

 If I was in a large schooner fitted out stroug, and had plenty of water 

 and everything, and found fish, I would lay there until I got a trip. 



Q. And if you did nQt find fish there, you would run over to the is- 

 land coast and the Magdalen Islands ? A. I think that I would prefer 

 the Magdalen Islands. I always did so when I was captain. 



Q. How often were you captain ? A. I have been captain of the C. 

 W. Dyer, and for two years of the Finback, and that was all, in the bay. 



Q. Do you think that around the Magdalen Islands is a pretty good 

 fishing ground ? A. I do. 



Q. Did you catch your fish close inshore there, or from 10 to 15 or 20 

 miles off shore ? A. When we speak of fishing at the Magdalen Islands, 

 we generally mean that we do so about them, within tea or twelve or 

 perhaps five miles of the land. 



Q. Do you catch the fish pretty close inshore there ? A. I never did so. 



Q. Where did you take them? A. Anywhere from five to tea or 

 fifteen miles off the land, just in the lay of it. 



Q. When you speak of fishing at the Magdalen Islands, you mean 

 that you did so 15 or 20 miles off shore ? -A. I mean anywhere from two 

 or three to 15 or 20 miles off. 



Q. Did you fish all over that distance? A. At certain times I did; 

 sometimes I would be in one place, and sometimes in another. 



Q. Is it not a pretty boisterous place ? A. I never saw it so. 



Q. The water, then, is calm and quiet around these islands ! A. It 

 is about the same as in other places. 



Q. We have evidence stating that it is very much windier there than 

 in other places ; do you agree with that view ? A. I do not think that 

 this is the case, and I am giving you iny candid opinion. In July, I 

 think that it is more wiudy there than at the island, but I think that 

 this is a benefit to fishermen, because in calm weather you cannot drift, 

 or make sail, or change ground. 



Q. Do you not leave these islands much earlier than the shores of 

 Cape Breton or Prince Edward Island ? A. Prince Edward Island, no; 

 Cape Breton, yes. 



Q. Then the fleet does not fish any later along Prince Edward Island 

 than at the Magdalen Islands ? A. 1 do not think that they fish as late. 



