2542 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



ably at the Magdalen Islands, except for a short time at the last part 

 of the season, when we fished down about the Cape Breton shore. 



Q. Then, shall we understand that during all the years you were in 

 the Kit Carson your exclusive fishing ground was in the vicinity of the 

 Magdalen Islands except late in the autumn ? A. While on that ves- 

 sel I never fished anywhere else, that is, to catch any fish of any account, 

 except late in the autumn, when almost every year I caught some mack- 

 erel about the Cape Breton shore; not always inshore, but sometimes 

 close inshore, and at other times, perhaps, some distance off; and then 

 we would make Port Hood our harbor in bad weather. 



Q. You speak of never having caught any fish off Prince Edward 

 Island when in your last two vessels, part of which you owned, I think, 

 the E. C. SmitlTand the Kit Carson ? A. Yes. 



Q. Those were large vessels? A. Yes. 



Q. Did you ever fish in those vessels within three miles of the shore 

 and catch any fish off Prince Edward Island ? A. I never did. I might 

 have hove to and caught a few scattered fish there, but I never caught 

 enough to detain us there. 



Q. Were you in the habit of resorting to harbors on the north side of 

 Prince Edward Island ? A. I was never in those harbors with those 

 vessels, save two or three times at Malpeque while in the first one. 



Q. During the years of your fishing experience, what is the largest 

 number of United States fishing-vessels that you have seen together at 

 one time, so far as you can judge ? A. Well, I do not know exactly, 

 but I should think I have seen 200 together at one time. 



Q. Where ? A. At the Magdalen Islands. 



Q. What is the largest number of United States fishing-vessels, ac- 

 cording to your best information, that was ever in the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence in any one year fishing speaking from what you have personally 

 observed, and what you . have learned from others ? A. I never took 

 the matter much into consideration, but there may have been at times, 

 perhaps, 400 such vessels in the bay. I have, however, no definite 

 knowledge on the subject. 



Q. What is the greatest number of vessels of all descriptions that you 

 ever knew to be there ? A. There was quite a large fleet of provincial 

 vessels there at one time, besides ; I should think that their number 

 was 100 or 150. 



Q. When was this ? A. I do not recollect the exact year, but I can 

 refer back to the vessel in which I was then to help my memory a little. 

 1 should think that this was somewhere in 1855 or 1856, or along there. 



Q. When you fished, did you usually fish with the greater part of the 

 Gloucester fishing fleet ? How many was the largest number of Glou- 

 cester fishing-vessels that was ever there in one year, in your judg- 

 ment ? A. I can answer that merely by guess-work, having no statis- 

 tics to guide me ; and I could not tell the number. 



Q. Were you usually fishing with the Gloucester fleet ? A. During 

 the last 5 or G years' that I fished in the bay, I fished in company of 

 the greater part of the Gloucester fleet. 



Q. What, then, was the chief fishing ground of the Gloucester fleet 

 during the last few years that you were fishing ! A. The Magdalen 

 Islands. 



Q. Have you any means of knowing how many of the Gloucester fleet 

 were fishing at the Magdalen Islands at the time of the gale in August, 

 1873, when a good many went ashore there ? A. I do not know the 

 number, but the largest part of the fleet was then there, I think ; my 

 ofrn vessels in particular were all there. 



