AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2509 



Q. Then you have the smoked herring, the fresh herring caught for 

 bait ; the herring that is caught and frozen for bait and food, and the 

 pickled herring, which you say is a very small proportion of the busi- 

 ness; so I understand you? A. You understand pretty nearly. But" 

 the freezing of the herring for food can only be done in cold weather, so 

 that if the weather is not cold enough some of that is pickled, but not 

 much is pickled otherwise, as the salt and barrels are an expense. 



TUESDAY, October 1, 1877. 

 The Commission met. 



Examination of WILFORD J. FISHER continued. 



By Mr. Trescot : 



Question. When you closed yesterday, you had described the way of 

 fishing to the Commissioners, and stated that the smoked-herring fishery 

 at Grand Manau was almost essentially a weir-fishery ; can you give the 

 Commission any idea of what the amount of smoked-herring business 

 is at Grand Manau ? Answer. I estimate the amount of smoked her- 

 ring cured at Grand Manau at 400,000 boxes. 



Q. Annually ? A. Yes ; annually. 



Q. Where is the market for these smoked herring ? A. In the United 

 States almost altogether. 



Q. These herring are shipped directly from the Island of Grand 

 Mauan ? A. They are now, uuder the present arrangements, under the 

 treaty. 



Q. In what are they shipped ? In American vessels or by parties in 

 the island ? A. There are four English vessels that have been running 

 in, one from New York and three to Boston. These vessels are owned 

 by people at Grand Manau. Then there are occasionally other vessels 

 chartered to load herring for Boston. 



Q. Do I understand by that that they are chartered by Grand Manan 

 people? A. Yes. 



Q. What vessels are these generally ? A. Just such vessels as they 

 can pick up. It does not make any difference as to the character of the 

 vessels running from Grand Manan to New York or Boston. Either 

 English or American vessels can go. 



Q. You say there are four vessels owned by people in Grand Manan in 

 which they ship smoked herring to Boston and New York ? A. Yes j 

 a large part of them ; and a large part of them are sold at Eastport. 



Q. Mostly caught in weirs ? A. Altogether in weirs. 



Q. Then there would be no portion that would be caught by Ameri- 

 cans ? A. No ; unless they went there and leased part of the weir. 



Q. It is all a Grand Mauan fishery essentially ; the cargo is shipped 

 in Grand Manan vessels and shipped by the people of Grand Manan ? 

 A. Yes; in addition to the smoked herring business at Grand Manan, 

 the island of Campobello smokes, I should think, 250,000 boxes; Indian 

 Island, Deer Island, and the rest of the small islands around the imme- 

 diate vicinity about 50,000 more. I should say there were 700,000 boxes 

 of smoked herring cured in our immediate vicinity on these British 

 islands. 



Q. These fisheries at Carapobello, Deer Island, and the neighboring 

 islands are all fisheries of the natives of those islands ?--A. Yes. 



Q. Now with regard to the frozen and pickled herring, what sort of a 

 business is done at Grand Mauan and the islands adjacent, to the best 

 of your knowledge, in that article ? A. The frozen herring and pickled 

 Iierring are the same herring, caught in the same way and by the same 



