AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2821 



the spurts would come at Margaree and Cheticamp, and we used to stop 

 in. I was with my father, who owued a vessel called the Frank, which 

 sailed for Halifax. We filled up two or three falls around Margaree. 

 Very few American vessels were there. 



Q* What time was that? A. We caught 200 barrels, about 5th No- 

 vember; I don't judge we were inside the three miles then. 



By Mr. Foster: 



Q. How old were you when you first went into the bay ? A. Eight 

 years. 



Q. You were with your father ? A. Yes ; my first trip was in the 

 Frank. 



Q. When you fish round Margaree late in the autumn, how long do 

 you stay one week or two? A. Sometimes one week, sometimes two. 

 Sometimes we have to lay there ten or twelve days and cannot get out. 

 Then perhaps one or two fine days will come, and we will get some 

 mackerel. 



FRIDAY, October 19, 1877. 

 The Conference met. 



The examination of Prof. SPENCER F. BAIRD, called on behalf of the 

 Government of the United States, resumed. 



By Mr. Dana : 



Question. There were some matters with regard to herring, in regard 

 to which I did not ask you fully yesterday. Will you state to the Com- 

 mission about the spawning-grounds of herring especially ? I do not 

 care for anything outside of the American coast. Answer. The herring 

 spawn along the whole coast of the United States, from the Bay of Fundy 

 to No Man's Land, which is a small island between Block Island and 

 Martha's Vineyard. I have specimens of spawn from almost all the 

 localities between those two points, and I am informed they also spawn 

 around Block Island, but I have never seen any evidence myself. 



Q. But you know as to the fact? A. I know it is so from testimony 

 and reports. 



Q. Do the eggs of the herring lodge on the bottom ? A. The herring 

 is almost the one is, 1 think, the only one of our important sea fish, the 

 eggs of which are adherent; that is to say, when discharged, it falls to 

 the bottom and adheres to the sea-weed, gravel, and rock. Generally 

 it is scattered, but not unfrequently a great part of the spawn of the 

 fish will be aggregated into a mass of the size of a walnut or hickory 

 nut, but more generally they are scattered and attached singly or by 

 twos and threes to sea-weed. I have here specimens of the eggs in the 

 adherent form, some which I dragged up at the southern end of Grand 

 Manan. 



Q. Are the spawning- grounds extended along the coast all the way! 

 A. Yes ; all the way. 



Q. And are very numerous ? A. There is no reason to suppose there 

 is any part of the coast at which they are wanting. They are specially 

 abundant about Cutler, in Maine, and about some of the islands off Pe- 

 nobscot Bay, about Cape Elizabeth, Portsmouth, off Newburyport, and 

 particularly along the edge of the coast from north and east of the en- 

 trance of Massachusetts Bay. They also spawn inside of Cape Cod 

 Bay, and all along the south coast of this region to No Man's Land, as 

 I have already mentioned. The spawning-season is later and later as 

 you go south. On the coast of the United States the herring spawns 

 on the fall of the temperature, just as the .salmon, cod, and trout do 



