AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2273 



here ? A. We dou't come here for bait from the Grand Banks. It is 

 when we are fishing on the Western Banks. From the Grand Bank we 

 don't come here at all. 



Q. The prospects are for a pretty good season, are they ? A. O, yes. 



Q. You always buy ice where you get bait, necessarily ? A. Well, 

 we cau't buy ice sometimes where we get bait. Sometimes we get bait 

 in the outer harbors where we can't get ice. There is no ice between 

 here and Canseau. If I don't get it here, I have to go to Canseaa. 

 There will be places below here, towards Ship Harbor and other places, 

 where 1 may get bait. 



Q. It is only of late years that this came up, this practice of going in 

 for bait? A. Since '72 or '73, most of it. Now it is only the Glouces- 

 ter vessels that go for bait and ice, and if they would all go and take 

 salt bait and stay out and fish with it they would do better, because 

 they dou't gain as much as they lose with the fresh bait, but if part of 

 them go in for it they will all go. 



Q. Why is that ? A. I don't know, I am sure. 



Q. Has not the fact that, when fresh bait is being used, the fish won't 

 take the salt bait, something to do with it! A. Well, they used to do 

 better, but the Gloucester people got in the way of going in for bait, 

 and they are doing so. I think they are losing by it. If you lose 10 to 

 12 days each time, that is 40 or 45 days in the season. 



Q. But then, if you catch more fish while you are there ? A. I say 

 you will catch more, but don't you see the time you are losing ! 



Q. I think you said you were two years in the bay for mackerel, one 

 of them only the fall, and the other the whole season ? A. Yes. In 

 1865 I was iu the T. G. Curtis, from Wellfleet. 



Q. How much did you say you got? A. 1,100 quintals. 



Q. That was a pretty good season's work ? A. Yes. 



Q. When you fished in the bay, were there very many vessels there 

 fishing then? A. A good many vessels. 



Q. Where did you fish ? A. We tried East Point, and went from 

 there to Point Miscou, then to Bonaventure, then further up in the bay. 



Q. Had you a license ? A. I don't know. I wras not master of the 

 vessel. 



Q. You tried up about Point Miscou and Bonaventnre. Did you take 

 anything there ? A. No ; we didn't get a great many there. Then we 

 went to the Magdulens, between Magdalens and East Point. That is 

 where we got the most. 



Q. Where else did you catch them beside ? A. Some at the Magda- 

 lens and a few off East Point. 



Q. And around the shores of your island ? A. Abrpad off there. 

 Maybe eight, nine, or ten miles off there. 



Q. And at Margaree ? A. In the fall we did. We got some off Mar 

 garee and Sydney. 



Q. How many did you get off Margaree and Sydney ? A. We got 

 200 barrels off Sydney, iu the fall abroad off Sydney, between that and 

 St. Anne's. 



Q. How many did you get off Margaree ? A. We might have got 

 them eight, nine, or ten miles off, sometimes closer in. 



Q. Did you take auy within three miles off Margaree ? -A. I don t 

 think so. *We might have caught a few, but none to speak of. 



Q. Are you quite sure? Can you recollect with sufficient clearix 

 to enable you to state how many ? A. We got most of them off shore. 

 As far as I know, we got them all over three miles off. 



Q. Between Cheticamp and Margaree might you have caught 



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