2186 AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



cent, commission, which came out of the vessel's half, there was $1,050 

 for the four who chartered her. Did you get your share of that ? A. 

 I don't think I did get as much as that; I might have. It don't seem as 

 though I did. I could not say that I did not. I thought it was not so 

 much as that. 



Q. On page 396, we seem to hear of you again from somebody. Eo- 

 nald McDonald says he was with you in 1859 or 1860, I believe, in the 

 Rattler. Do you remember him ? A. I don't remember him. He 

 might have been with me ; many men have, whose names I don't re- 

 member. 



Q. What are the prospects, if you know, of the mackerel fishing this 

 year? A. Well, 1 don't know; so far as I can hear, they are pretty 

 poor. Our vessels have done very badly. 



Q. Now, suppose the mackerel were to be very plenty from this time 

 on, is there time to make a good result ? A. No ; it is too late now. It 

 is coming on blowy weather; and they could not do much. There 

 might be, perhaps, some few days when they could do something. 



Q. When you were in the habit of fishing, was Magdalen Islands con- 

 sidered safe or dangerous! A. It was the safest place in the bay. 



Q. Why? A. You can run around it any' time, day or night, sounding 

 with the lead, no matter what kind of weather. 



Q. Can you estimate the largest number of vessels from Gloucester 

 that ever went to the gulf for mackerel ? A. I should not think over 

 275, or 300 at the most. There used only to be in those times four or 

 five hundred sail altogether; and I don't think a great many more than 

 half of them went into the bay. I think there are now about 520, or 

 thereabouts, boats and all. 



Q. If you were coming to the gulf to fish for mackerel, what value 

 would you attach to the right of fishing inshore ? Explain your opinion 

 on that point. A. Well, some years I have seen two or three years 

 I should like to have fished inshore; when the mackerel was inshore. 

 A heavy northeast wind late in the fall drives them all in, around Mar- 

 garee Island, maybe, and a man might catch a trip of mackerel, if he 

 could not get them anywhere else, the last thing in the fall. That is 

 about all the advantage. In good weather, I should not care anything 

 about it ; but late in the fall, the last thing, I have caught 215 barrels 

 there in two days, and I suppose I could have caught 500 if I had a 

 place for them. I never saw but two years like that. The year of the 

 gale, in 1851, was just such a year; but I was full when I got there. 



By Sir Alexander Gait : 



Q. Are they good mackerel ? A. Nice mackerel. 

 By Mr. Foster : 



Q. Which would you rather have, the right to fish inshore and have 

 the British mackerel come in free, or be excluded and have the old duty 

 on it ? A. 1 should rather have the old duty. It is not altogether on 

 account of the mackerel, but the herring. 



Q. Tell me about that. A. If there were a duty, we could have the 

 whole trade of selling them in Boston, but when there is no duty the 

 English vessel can carry them cheaper than we can. 



Q. The old duty was a dollar a barrel? A. Yes; I think so. We 

 have lost that trade. 



Q. I notice that in 1873 the Colonel Cook, of Gloucester, is stated by 

 the collector at Port Mulgrave, under the head of June 13, to have been 

 twice through Canso to have made two trips ; to have taken on the 

 first trip 380 barrels, and on tbe second trip 320 barrels of mackerel. 



