2840 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. She is expending large sums of money on it ? A. Certainly. She 

 is doing most admirably. I am very happy to say that Canada and the 

 United States are working concurrently in a great many directions in 

 the line of artificial fish culture. 



Q. Do you know the Canadian establishment on Detroit River? A. 

 Yes. 



Q. Is it doing a large business? A. I don't know what it is doing 

 this year; but last year I understand that it did a very large business. 



Q. It then hatched 10,000,000 eggs ? A. Yes, very likely. 



Q. You say that cod cannot live except in cold water? A. The cod is an 

 inhabitant of the colder waters. 



Q. Are you aware whether or not the Gulf Stream during the sum- 

 mer months swings in at all more toward the American coast ? A. It 

 does. 



Q. For how many miles! A. I cannot say. 



Q. Would that have any effect in driving the cod away from the 

 American shores? A. No ; not the slightest. 



Q. You think not? A. Yes ; it has not the slightest effect on them. 

 If you go down to a certain depth in the ocean, in the tropics or any- 

 where else, you will find the water cold enough for cod ; and there is 

 nothing to prevent the cod being as abundant in tropical waters say 

 off Brazil or the West Indies as anywhere else; as far as temperature 

 is concerned, it is cold enough there for them at a certain depth. 



Q. Have they ever been caught there? A. Not that I know of; but 

 the water there is cold enough for them. 



Q. Is it not very venturesome to state that there is nothing to prevent 

 them staying there? A. They may be there, but they have not been 

 caught there. Nobody has fished at those great depths, for you have 

 got to go down from 6,000 to 15,000 and 20,000 feet to find that'teuipera- 

 ture in tropical seas. 



Q. Have you the slightest idea as to what sort of animals reside down 

 there ? A. Yes. We have a very good knowledge of such species as 

 can be taken up by the trawling line and dredge from those depths; and 

 we know that an ample supply of food suitable for cod is to be found 

 there. 



Q. Has any beam-trawl or dredge ever taken cod in those regions? k 

 A. No; you do not catch cod with small trawls any more than you can 

 so catch whales. 



By Sir Alexander Gait: 



Q. Would not the temperature in those waters interfere with the 

 spawn of the. cod, as this spawn floats ? A. I think that the water there 

 might be too warm for the development of codfish eggs in the abstract; 

 but the effect would be to make them hatch out more rapidly than would 

 be the case in cold water. Of course it is a very serious question to 

 decide whether, with the present constitution of the cod, its eggs would 

 develop in warm water, though whether it might not evolute and develop 

 into a warm- water cod I do not know. 



By Mr. Thomson : 



Q. On page GO of your Report for 1872 and 1873. you use the follow- 

 ing language : 



It is in another still more important connection that vre should consider the alevrife. 

 It is well known that within the last thirty or forty years the fisheries of cod, haddock, and 

 hake along our coasts have measurably diminished, and in some places ceased entirely. 

 Enough may be taken for local consumption, but localities which formerly furnished 

 the material for an extensive commerce in dried fish have been entirely abandoned. 



