2700 AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. Do you know Walter B. McLaughliu ? A. Only by reputation as 

 keeper of a light-house. 



Q, I want to call your attention to his testimony. There is the fol- 

 lowing: 



Q. Now, in the spring are you not visited by the Grand Manan fleet from Glouces- 

 ter ? A. Yes ; they used formerly to come to Grand Manaii direct. Generally now 

 they go to Eastport and get the Eastport people to catch bait for them. 



Q. When you say " formerly," do you mean after the Treaty of Washington ? A. 

 Yes; they did not come before that much. It is since 1871 that they have come prin- 

 cipally. They will come down every spring. 



Q. How long do they last ? A. Sometimes a longer and sometimes a shorter time. 



Q. How many years after the treaty did it commence ? A. It has lasted down to the 

 present time, for that matter. There has not been so many this last spring as before. 



Q. I thought you said there ha"1 been a change in the practice ? A. There has not 

 been a change in the practice of getting bait at our places, but in the mode of getting 

 it. They generally come to Eastport and make that their place of departure. The 

 Eastport people are acquainted with our waters almost as well as our own people, and 

 they come across and catch fish and sell to the Gloucester fishermen ; that is the ma- 

 ority of the cases now. 



Q. I understand that at first they came down themselves and bought ? A. Yes. 



Q. And now they come chiefly to Eastport to employ Eastport fishermen, who catch 

 the fish and bring them to them ? A. The big vessels are not fitted out for herring 

 fishing. They take an Eastport vessel in company with them and come over and an- 

 chor in our waters. They bring their own fishermen with them and anchor in our 

 waters, and get their bait there. They sometimes come in the fall for bait. 



What do you know about that ? A. I know that it is not so. I have 

 seen 40 vessels from Gloucester lying in the harbor of Eastport for bait, 

 and the boats would bring the .bait from the other side, and would bait 

 them up. 



Q. The boats would come from Grand Manan ? A. From Campobello 

 and Deer Island. When I speak of the other side I mean the British 

 Islands. 



Q. There is also the following: 



Q. You are well acquainted with the fisheries of Charlotte County. Take the main- 

 land fishing from Letete as far as Lepreau, is that a good fishing-ground ? A. It is 

 considered a good fishing-ground ; I am not personally acquainted with it, and can only 

 say from what I have heard; my duties have never carried me there. 



Q. But your practical knowledge extends there ? A. Yes. 



Q. What would be the value of the mainland fishery, the British fishery alone, taking 

 it from Letete to Lepreaux ? A. My own fishery is, say, .$500,000 ; Campobello and 

 West Isles must equal mine, and the mainland will certainly be more than half ot that, 

 if not equal to it. 



Q. Well, then, you put Campobello and West Isles as about equal to Grand Manan T 

 A. Yes ; speaking as I do, not knowing exactly, I should say so. 



Q. That would be half a million for those two islands, and half a million for Grand 

 Manan that makes a million ; and you think the mainland is half as much as either 

 of those ; that would be a fair estimate for the mainland f A. Yes ; Charlotte County 

 is a verv important fishing county. In 1861 I was a census enumerator, and I think 

 the result of the fishery in that county nearly equaled that of all the other fisheries of 

 the province, with the exception of St. John County. 



Q. You put half a million as the catch of the British fishermen on the mainland for 

 the year, and, in your judgment, the American catch is the same ? A. All I can judge is 

 by what I hear. They come down in their vessels. I think they have their own way 

 on the north shore, very much more than on Grand Manan ; I have a great deal of 

 trouble with them there. But on the north shore I think they have things pretty 

 much as they want. I would say that they probably surpass our own catch. 



You don't agree with that estimate ? A. No. 

 By Mr. Thomson : 



Q. I want to call your attention to the last paragraph read to you, in 

 which you contradicted the evidence of Mr. McLaughlin. Mr. Trescot 

 read to you the following: 



Q. You are well acquainted with the fisheries of Charlotte Connty; take the main- 

 land Iroin Letete as far as Lepreau, is that a good fishing-ground f A. I atu not per- 

 sonally acquainted with it; I can only say from what I have heard. My duties have 

 never carried me there. 



