2836 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



and have no effect on the fishing beyond this limit? A. I cannot say 

 how far it will have effect. 



Q. Will this effect stop short of the three-mile limit? A. I think 

 there are a great many concurrent agencies which affect the fish supply 

 at different seasons on the different parts of the coast, aud that while 

 the inshore fishing of herring aud shad, or other incoming fish, regulates 

 that to some extent, it does not cover the whole ground. 



Q. I want a direct answer : are you able to state that the destruction 

 of bait, by reason of the bad treatment of these rivers, only affects the 

 fishing along the coast to the extent of three miles from it? A. I can- 

 not say that; I cannot say how far such effect extends, and nobody can 

 do so. 



Q. It is reasonable to suppose that it extends for a considerable dis- 

 tance farther than three miles from the coast ? A. That I cannot say. 



Q. Would this not more likely drive the fish to other coasts where 

 the rivers are not so treated ? A. Fish certainly have to go where they 

 can get food, and' if they cannot procure it on one spot they have to go 

 to some other spot for it. 



Q. Is it not probable that they will go where the rivers are not so 

 badly treated ? A. This depends on how far cod and haddock will 

 migrate, under any circumstances. If they leave the shore, but can find 

 an ample supply of food on Georges Bank or on Nantucket Shoals, they 

 will probably stay there. 



Q. Do cod migrate at all ? Is this known for a certainty to be the 

 case ? A. It is not certain that they have such migrations as we ascribe 

 to the bluefish aud mackerel; whether they traverse a mile of sea bot- 

 tom in search of food, or whether they go 100 miles for it, under any 

 circumstances, I cannot say. 



Q. I understood you to say yesterday that you could not trace their 

 migrations at all ? A. No, I cannot. 



Q. And you do not pretend to say that they do migrate? I rather 

 understood you to say also that mackerel do not migrate? A. They 

 migrate, but they do not sweep along the coast at least I do not think 

 they do so, as was formerly supposed, for very many miles ; but rather 

 come direct from their winter grounds inshore. 



Q. I understood you to say, your theory at present was that there was 

 a vast body of mackerel which, forming one wing of their army, passed 

 along the American coast ; and that another wing directed their course 

 into the gulf? A. Yes. 



Q. I see that in the Answer of the United States, page 10, the follow- 

 ing language is used : 



The migration of mackerel in the spring begins on the Atlantic coast from a point 

 as far south as Cape Hatteras. The first-comers reach Provincetown, Mass., about May 

 10. Here they begin to scatter, aud they are found during the entire season along the 

 New England coast. 



" Whatever may be the theories of others on the subject," says Professor Baird, ' the 

 American mackerel fisher knows perfectly well that in spring, about May, he will find 

 the schools of mackerel off Cape Hatteras, and that he can follow them northward, 

 day by day, as they move in countless myriads on to the coast of Maine, of Nova Scotia, 

 and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They may be occasionally lost sight of by their 

 sinking below the surface ; but they are 'sure to present themselves, shortly after, tc 

 those who look for them farther north and east." 



Do you now adhere to that statement ? A. I think that was not the 

 most philosophical expression on that subject. My views in regard to the 

 proper theory concerning mackerel have been modified since then, to 

 the extent I have alleged. 



Q. In fact, if I correctly understood you yesterday, you rather inclined 



