2696 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



No. 59. 



TUESDAY, October 16, 1877. 

 The Conference met. 



ELIPHALET W. FRENCH, of Eastport, Me., fish merchant, called on 

 behalf of the Government of the United States, sworn and examined. 



By Mr. Trescot : 



Question. You are a native of Eastport, I believe ? Answer. I am. 



Q. What age are you ? A. Forty-one years. 



Q. In what business are you engaged ? A. In the wholesale fish bas- 

 iuess and fitting out. 



Q. How long have you been engaged in it ? A. Twenty years. 



Q. As in business for yourself, or as clerk, or how ? A. I have been 

 in business for myself nineteen years last February ; previous to that I 

 was in a store with my father. 



Q. What was your father's business ? A. He followed the same busi- 

 ness. 



Q. How long did he follow it? A. Nearly forty years. 



Q. So the firm of which you are a member now, and which you rep- 

 resent, and the business in which your father was previously, extend 

 over how many years ? A. Something like sixty years in the same busi- 

 ness. 



Q. Will you explain to the Commission what the business is ? A. 

 Buying and selling fish and fitting fishermen. 



Q. Buying fish whereabouts, as a general rule ? A. From fishermen. 



Q. From fishermen, where I A. At Grand Manan, Deer Island, Cam- 

 pobello, Indian Island, and Beaver Harbor. 



Q. Is it a matter of necessity in your business that you should have 

 a pretty good knowledge of the fishing at those places f A. Yes. 



Q. You make or lose money according to the completeness and pre- 

 cision of your knowledge of that fishery ? A. Yes. 



Q. What is the fishery at Grand Mauan and the Bay of Fundy gen- 

 erally ? A. Codfish, pollock, hake, haddock, and herring. 



Q. Are any of those fisheries entirely off-shore fisheries ? A. Codfish 

 is an ofl'-shore fishery. Hake are taken off shore. 



Q. Entirely or partially ? A. Hake are entirely taken off shore now. 



Q. Was it once an inshore fishery? A. Yes; it is only within three 

 or four years they have been taken offshore. 



Q. Before that it was inshore ? A. Inshore and out, both. 



Q. How about haddock ? A.. Haddock is mostly an inshore fishery. 



Q. Herring, of course, is an inshore fishery ? A. Partly. 



Q. Into what divisions do you mark the herring fishery ? A. There 

 are smoked, pickled, and frozen herring. 



Q. With regard to smoked herring, where is the market for smoked 

 herring that come from the Bay of Fundy, Grand Manan, and the isl- 

 ands of the mainland ? A. Boston and New York, principally. 



Q. Are they sent to Boston and New York from Eastport, or do many 

 go direct ? A. They send most of them to Eastport. They are brought 

 there in boats, and seut from there in steamers and sailing vessels. At 

 Grand Mauan they have three or four large vessels by which they ship 

 them to Boston and New York direct. 



Q. Are those American vessels or Grand Manan vessels owned by 

 Grand Manan people? A. I know one that is chartered is an American 

 vessel, because it is my own vessel. I don't know in regard to others. 



Q. Do they ship on account of Americans, or do they charter the ves- 

 sels ? A. They are chartered by Grand Mauan people. 



