AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2515 



who hauled the fish out of the water with his hands line-fishing that 

 ever got rich. 



Q. You have never known one that laid up money ? A. No ; not in 

 that business alone. 



Q. Have you an opinion as to the effect of throwing gurry over on the 

 fishing grounds ! A. That has been talked over among the fishermen for 

 the last 40 years. I have somewhat changed my mind in regard to it. 

 We used to think once it was a great injury, but I have about made up 

 my mind that this gurry is devoured by sea fleas, star-fish, and other 

 insects that inhabit the water, and that it is not so great an injury as 

 we have heretofore thought it. I have no doubt that the gurry thrown 

 overboard will attract dog-fish, cat-fish, skates, and that kind of fish in 

 large numbers while it lasts, but I don't think it injures the fishing 

 grounds to the extent supposed. 



Q. Do you think the effect would last from one season to another 1 

 A. No. 



Q. What do you say about the effect of trawling ? A. I think trawl- 

 ing is an injury' to the fish, inasmuch as trawls set in the mouth of the 

 bay will catch the mother fish as they come in to spawn. And I think 

 they are an injury so far as they catch these mother fish. I don't think 

 the trawls frighten the fish or drive them out, but I think they catch 

 the mother fish as they come in to spawn, and thereby decrease the 

 quantity. 



Q. You speak of the mouths of the bays. Would it be the case off the 

 coast on the Banks? A. It would not do so much injury there. I don't 

 know that it would do any injury there at all. It would only be an 

 injury on spawning grounds or in the road set in the road where-the 

 fish come in to spawn. 



Q. On the spawning grounds or at the mouth of a bay of moderate 

 size ? A. Uu the spawning grounds or in the road that the fish take to 

 the spawning grounds, it would be an injury. 



By Mr. Thomson : 



Q. You live now at Eastport ? A. Yes. 



Q. I understood you to say you came from Grand Manan ? A. I was 

 born there and lived there until I was 22. 



Q. I understood that you owned American vessels ? A. No. 



Q. That you yourself owned American vessels or shares in them after 

 you went to Eastport f A. I owned shares in American vessels, freight- 

 ing vessels, and I also owned a share in the brig I went to -the coast of 

 Labrador in. . 



Q. Was that an American or English vessel? American registry. I 

 also owned a share in an English vessel that I went to Newfoundland 

 herring fishing in. 



Q. Well, in order to hold an American registry you must have been 

 an American citizen ? A. Yes, sir. 



Q. After leaving Grand Maiian you were naturalized ? A. Yes. 



Q. How long ago were you naturalized? A. I was naturalized, I 

 think, about 1851 or 1852; I am not certain. I had to live in the United 

 States five years before I got naturalized. 



Q. At present you are an American citizen and have been since 1851 

 or 1852! A. Yes. 



Q. Your sympathies are naturally with the American side- of this 

 question? A. My sympathies are for the right, and have been, ever 

 since I was a boy in this fishery. Whatever is right. 



Q. Well, that is a very wide term. It depends on our stand-point. 



