2328 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. What else have you been for ? A. Squid, twice. 



Q. How did you get squid ! A. Well, they caught them ; jigged and 

 took them alongside the first time, and we bought them salted the second 

 time. 



Q. Who jigged them the first time ? A. The natives. 



Q. How much did you pay for them ? A. Two dollars a barrel. 



Q. The salt squid did you get last time ? A. Yes. 



Q. Does this answer for bait ? A. It is not so good ; but we could not 

 get anything else. 



Q. How many times have you been to Newfoundland for bait ? A. 

 Since I have been skipper f 



Q. Yes. A. Well, 1 have been about six times in two years. 



Q. And how many times did you go before that, while ycm were shares- 

 man ? A. I have been back and forward for the last four years. I have 

 been there as much as, I suppose, ten or twelve times before I went 

 skipper. 



Q. Now, won't you tell the Commissioners what is the longest and 

 what is the shortest time that it has ever taken to go from the Bank into 

 Newfoundland to get bait and return to the fishing ground ? A. The 

 shortest time I have been would be about nine days. 



Q. What is the longest ? A. I have been four weeks. 



Q. How did that happen ? A. I could not get it. I was hunting it 

 up, trying to get it. 



Q. Now, you have fished with salt bait taken from home, not going 

 near Newfoundland, and you have gone in as a skipper half a dozen 

 times, and as sharesman ten or twelve times to buy bait ? A. Yes. 



Q. I want you to state whether in your opinion the advantages of 

 going to Newfoundland to procure bait are worth anything. A. Well, 

 when we used to carry bait from home, we used to catch some fish, 

 but since we went to run fresh bait we didn't catch half the quantity we 

 used to catch, I don't think, when we used to take bait from home, be- 

 cause we lose half our time and more looking for fresh bait. 



Q. You Jose half your time? A. Yes. 



Q. You don't consider it an advantage? A. No; I don't consider it 

 an advantage at all. 



Q. Have you ever got caplin there for bait ? A. No ; I never took 

 any caplin. I have never been in a vessel that had any. 



Q. Now, before you were cod-fishing you made some mackerel voyages, 

 I think ? A. Yes; I have been four or five years for mackerel before I 

 went for cod. 



Q. What vessels were you in ? Begin with the earliest mackerel 

 schooner you were in. A. I have been in the Moonlight. That was the 

 first vessel, John Spriggan, captain. 



Q. W T hat year ? A. About 1865, I guess. 



Q. How many barrels of mackerel did you take that year ? A. Well, 

 I took off and on about 150 barrels, I guess. 



Q. Where did you take them ? A. Most of them around the Magda- 

 lens. 



Q. What was the next schooner you were in ? A. The Easterwood, 

 Captain Galasky. 



Q. How many barrels of mackerel did you take in her? A. Well, 

 between 180 and 190. 1 could not be certain; off and on, about 

 that. 



Q. Where were they taken f A. We caught them between the North 

 Cape and around the Magdalens ; up between the Magdaleus and North 



