AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2789 



Q. But figures sometimes do not stand investigation ? A. Figures, 

 they say, always tell the truth ; " figures cannot lie." 



Q. By coming to the bay you also avoided the fogs in summer on 

 your coast? A. Yes. 



Q. 1 believe that either there is no fog at all or very little fog in the 

 Bay of St. Lawrence during the summer 1 ? A. There is then very little 

 of it. 



Q. You have been there from 1837 ? A. No, from 1836. 



Q. Up to 1868, off and on, almost every year? A. Yes. 



Q. And during that time you saw very little fog in the bay? A. No, 

 not a great deal. 



Q. What was the duration of the longest fog you ever saw in the 

 bay ? A. I could not tell you. Sometimes the fog lasted for twelve 

 hours, but I do not know that it continued longer than that ; such is 

 not to my knowledge, as far as I can recollect, but it might have been 

 longer sometimes. 



Q. It was of very rare occurrence that the fog lasted longer ? A. I 

 think so. We very rarely saw a fog after we were once in the bay ; up 

 by the island and past East Point and up on Banks Orphan and Brad- 

 ley, and such like, you would have very little fog. 



Q. Were you in the bay in 1851 ? A. Yes ; I then made two trips. 



Q. You must have been in the bay most of that season ? A. Well ? 



Q. You were in the bay in 1851 and 1853 ; do you recollect of seeing 

 any fog at all there during either of these years ? In 1853 you were in 

 the Highland Lass ? A. In 1851 1 was in the Alexander. 



Q. In 1851 you made two trips ? A. I did not go home with my first 

 trip; I landed it with Mr. Martel, at Arichat ; I had not time to go 

 home, and so I landed 314 barrels there, and he advanced me the money 

 to fit out. 



Q. In that season you were two trips in the bay, during the whole of 

 the summer and fall; when did you go out in the fall ? A. I think I 

 left home on the 7th of July ; 1 usually left home on my fishing trips on 

 the 7th of July, and I think that I arrived home about the ISfch or the 

 20th of October. 



Q. You were in the bay during all the summer and a large portion of 

 ,the fall ; do you recollect any one day during this period when you saw 

 a fog in the bay .in 1851 ? A. Well, I cannot say that it was then foggy, 

 but there was a most almighty smoke. It was so smoky that you could 

 not see anything for three, four, or five days ; and owing to this fact 

 that year I got out of the mackerel, and getting behindhand, I had to 

 land those mackerel and could not go home. 



Q. Where did this smoke come from ? A. From all round ; from fires 

 at Miramichi and on the West Shore, and up that way ; the smoke was 

 so dense that you.could-not see half a mile for three, four, or five days, 

 all the way from North Cape over to Escuminac. 



Q. I suppose that no person with eyes in his head could help knowing 

 the difference between that and fog? A. Certainly; there was smoke 

 but no fog. 



Q. Did that smoke hurt your rigging in any way? A. No-; the only 

 \vay in which it hurt us was by preventing us getting any mackerel. 



<}. Do you recollect having seen any fog in the bay in 1853? A. O, 

 well, these are questions that I could not answer correctly, and I do not 

 want to answer unless I can do so. We do not care anything at all 

 about fogs, and though it might be foggy sometimes, we would not 

 think anything about it, or remark it. There is nothing in a fog that 

 would be thought of importance. 



