AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2485 



Q. You did not go out to fish at all ? A. We had fishing-gear on 

 board, and we went for the purpose of catching fish that day. 



Q. But was your schooner fitted out for fishing ? A. No, but for 

 trading ; she had, however, fishing-gear on board. 



Q. What do you call fishing-gear ? A. She had somewhere about six 

 nets on board, and mackerel jigs and lines enough for six men, and such 

 and such bait as we could buy as we went along the shore. 



Q. Where did you get it ? A. At Little Causo, before we went round 

 Scatarie. 



Q. Had you barrels in which to put your fish ? A. Yes. 



Q. Then you were on a kind of mixed trip trading and fishing? 

 A. Of course. When we could not buy, we caught them if we could. 



Q. How many fish did you catch during the whole trip ? A. We 

 caught 150 barrels. 



Q. Where? A. Between Ingonish, Cape Breton, and St. Peter's, Prince 

 Edward Island. We were not exactly close inshore. 



Q. What do you call close inshore? A. From one-half a mile to 1J 

 miles, and perhaps If or 3 miles off shore. 



Q. But were you very nearly close inshore ? A. We were not inside 

 of three miles from it anyway ; none of them were taken within this 

 limit. 



Q. Not one of them ? A. No. 



Q. I suppose that you would not have caught any within three miles 

 of the shore if you could have done so ? A. Yes ; we would, if we 

 could have got any there. 



Q. Did you try in there ? A. Yes. 



Q. I suppose you knew that you had no right to fish there? A. .We 

 were in a British schooner, and we had a right to fish anywhere where 

 we could get fish. 



Q. Did you attempt to fish within three miles of the shore? A. I 

 tell you plainly that we tried in there, but we could not get the fish 

 there to any amount. 



Q. What did you catch there ? A. I remember that one day we took 

 25 mackerel there. 



Q. And that is the only day you do remember of having caught fish 

 there ? A. No. 



Q. What other days did you do so ? A, There are plenty more days 

 when this was the case. 



Q. I suppose you remember that day because so few were then 

 caught? A. Yes ; it did not pay us much for that day's work. 



Q. Other days you did much better work ? A. Yes. 



Q. Do I understand you to state to the Commission that the inshore 

 fisheries along Prince Edward Island are good for nothing ? A. I do 

 not think that they are good for anything, between you and me. 



Q. During how many years have you been acquainted with them ? 

 A. I was fourteen when I caught my first fish. 



Q. Was this on the shore of Prince Edward Island ? A. No ; but off 

 Sheet Harbor, down here. In 1857, my father moved to the town of 

 Pictou, and the next spring we fitted out and went away around the 

 shore fishing. My father is now in Nebraska. 



Q. I understand you to state that, in your opinion, the inshore fisher- 

 ies on the north side of Prince Edward Island that is, within three 

 miles of the coast, are good for nothing ? A. They are good for noth- 

 ing ; that is the way it lays now. 



Q. And the way it has always lain so far as you are aware ? A. Yes. 



Q. While you have been acquainted with them ? A. Yes. 



