AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 23^9 



Q. I think you stated the number and quantity were as large as they 

 ever had been ? A. Yes. 



Q. Did you say whether this scup you thought so highly of is abund- 

 ant f A. Yes; it is pleutier this year than for the past five or six years. 



Q. Wbat period of time are they to be found ? A. May and June. 

 They are very small this year. We turn them out to let them go another 

 year. 



Q. But when they are full grown how big are they ? A. A pound and 

 a quarter. 



Q. How are the mackerel off Block Island and Rhode Island gener- 

 ally, and off Elizabeth Island? A. They have been very large and 

 plenty this season. We have caught them in our pounds, and one ves- 

 sel from our place did a pretty good business to the eastward of Block 

 Island, and between Block Island and Gay Head, which is the western 

 side of Martha's Vineyard. 



Q. Then the blue fish ! A. They have been very plenty. 



Q. What seasons. How long are they there ? A. Well, they are there 

 in the fore part of June till the last of October. 



Q. They are caught in Vineyard Sound ! A. Yes. 



Q. They send them mostly to New York ? A. Yes ; they are all pre- 

 pared for the New York market. 



By Mr. Davies : 



Q. I have only a question or two to ask for information. Do you mean 

 to say that these halibut in the tanks live for four weeks without food 

 at all f A. Yes. 



Q. And that they will keep up there ! A. Just as bright as when put 

 in. 



Q. In fatness and weight ? A. Yes. 



Q. How do you account for it I Do they get food in the water? A. 

 I don't know anything about it, but they are just as bright after they 

 have been four, five, or six weeks, and just as lively as when they were 

 taken. 



Q. Do you change the water ? A. We have about six hundred holes 

 in the bottom of the vessel. It is right through t the bottom, and the sea 

 washes in through it. 



Q. Do you say you didn't know anything about halibut on the Nova 

 Scotia and Dominion shores until the last few years? A. For the last 

 seven years. 



, Q. Have you gone up among them at all ? A. No ; I never was there 

 catching halibut. 



Q. There is the Island of Cape Sable 1 A. I never went round it. I 

 made Cape Sable light three times. 



Q. That pound-fishery; what coast is it on? A. The States of Con- 

 necticut aud Massachusetts. 



Q. Do you embrace Massachusetts in your statement about the pound- 

 fishe? A. Yes; that is where we fished last season. 



Q. How far off from the shores do you have these pounds ? A. Maybe 

 six hundred feet on the shore. We run a leader from the shore right 

 off into thirty-six or thirty -eight feet of water. 



Q. Do you catch mackerel in them ? A. Yes. We got a lot of mack- 

 erel, some 280 odd barrels, and sent them to New York. 



Q. They come pretty close in there! A. Yes; right along. 



Q. What takes them in? A. I can't tell. 



Q. Is it bait? A. There is no bait you can see that time of year. 



Q. Are there many of those pounds ? A. Yes. 



