AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2503 



the time, and that is the only time you tried ? A. We were surrounded 

 by hundreds of vessels. 



Q. But, looking to your own personal experience, the best fishing 

 there that you knew was within three miles! A. Yes; well, I never 

 saw 23 barrels caught, that I recollect, so quickly as we caught them 

 that morning. 



Q. And you never tried it any other time? (No answer.) 



Mr. TBESCOT. Did he understand your question ? 



Mr. WEATHERBE. Did you understand ? A. Yes ; I believe I under- 

 stand. 



Q. Then, with regard to the value of the inshore fisheries in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, you have no personal knowledge later than 1837 f A. 

 No practical knowledge. 



Q. But since that I understood you to say you had acquired knowl- 

 edge by procuring information ? A. I commenced when I was done 

 fishing to fit out vessels. 



Q. Have you ever acquired any knowledge from others with regard 

 to the value of the inshore fisheries since 1837? A. I have invariably 

 consulted all my captains. 



Q. You recollect when the agitation was going on in regard to the 

 Reciprocity Treaty in 1852 in your State? A. Yes; in 1854. We were, 

 down to that, against it. 



Q. I suppose you are acquainted with Senator Hamlin ? A. Yes f 

 and with Mr. Fyke, too. He voted against it. I circulated a petition. 



Q. J am asking you with reference to Senator Hamliu. He took an 

 interest in this question of the fisheries, did he not? A. Yes; but I 

 have really forgotten about it. 



Q. You yourself, in 1852, did not consider the fisheries of the gulf of 

 any value, 1 think ? A. In 1852 ? I always considered them of some 

 value. 



Q. How much value? In 1852-'54, for instance. A. Well, I don't 

 know any distinction, since I went fishing, in the value of the inshore 

 fisheries. 



Q. Now, you are here as officer of the government in the State of 

 Maine, having collected statistics, and you have brought a book full of 

 statistics, I suppose ? A. You said I came on purpose for this examina- 

 tion. I had a dispatch, and a very few moments after I got the dispatch 

 I came unprepared. 



Q. What I said was that you had collected statistics. It was known 

 you had collected statistics. It was known you were a man likely to be 

 .well acquainted with the subject. Now, I want to ask you whether it 

 was considered in the State of Maine in 1852, 1853, 1854, or any of those 

 years, that the inshore fisheries were of a great deal of ^alue ? A. Well, 

 so far as I know, although I had not at that time traveled over the State 

 of Maine, I probably got hold of the opinion of our fishing communities 

 and towns, from Portsmouth to Eastport, and they were opposed to the 

 opening of our markets to foreign fish, or, in other words to the Reci- 

 procity Treaty. 



Q. What I want to get at is this, whether the general feeling in that 

 State was opposed to it, or whether the people were generally of the 

 opinion that the inshore fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence were of 

 very little use to you. Tell us that? A. So far as I know ever since 

 I can recollect having anything to do in Bay Chaleurs they always were 

 frightened at this three-mile restriction. 



Q. You certainly understand my question. Were your fisherman of 



