2932 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. At what particular place at the Magdalens did you get the best 

 mackerel ? A. Bird Eock, I believe, was the best I would say anywhere. 

 I suppose Bird Eock mackerel were a little ahead, but not a great deal 

 of these mackerel are caught there. 



Q. What mackerel are there anywhere that compare with the Bird 

 Eock mackerel ? A. Block Island mackerel are the only mackerel I 

 ever saw. 



Q. But, except that, Bird Eock is as good as you have ever seen ? 

 A. There is but very few of that kind anywhere, but there were more at 

 Block Island than at Bird Eock. 



Q. Now, explain as to your fishing in the bend of the island. How 

 much fishing have you done there, and at what distance from the shore 

 have you generally fished * A. I don't remember ever catching any 

 mackerel of any account nearer than from six to seven miles, although 

 I might have caught a few. We always went in and came out of har- 

 bors, but I never thought of heaving to and trying for them until we 

 were six or eight miles off. 



Q. What is the difficulty fishing within three miles of the bend of 

 the island with a vessel ! A. Well, I never found any difficulty in fish- 

 ing in, if the mackerel were there, but the mackerel is scattered, what 

 there is there. There is no body of them. There are more outside. 



Q. How far out do you go to get a body of mackerel large enough to 

 make it pay a vessel to fish ? A. From six to fifteen miles. Fifteen 

 miles just the rise of the laud, so that you can just see New London 

 Head. That is a better fishing ground than anywhere else around the 

 island. We always made New London Head our mark. 



Q. How high is the land at New London Head ? A. Not very high, 

 but it shows more prominently than the other land around. You can 

 see that further than the laud on each side of it. 



Q. Well, how many years do you suppose of the sixteen or seventeen 

 you were skipper did you fish in the bend of the island ? A. Well, I 

 never fished the whole year through. I suppose I fished more or less 

 there for six or seven years. I could not say just the number of years. 



Q. Have you ever fished up Bay Chaleurs ? A. No ; I never caught 

 ten barrels there in my life. 



Q. Have you been up there ? A. Twice only. 



Q. Did you try for fish ? A. I tried both times I went. 



Q. But unsuccessfully ? A. I never thought much of it. 



Q. Have you ever fished up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, off Seven 

 Islands, so called ? A. I have been there one year. 



Q. When was that? Do you remember what year it was! A. Well, 

 I think it was m 1862. 



Q. What did you succeed iu doing up by the Seven Islands in 1802 .' 

 A. I caught 180 barrels. We were off Fox Eiver, on the opposite side, 

 on the south side of the gulf. 



Q. How near inshore ? A. We caught SO barrels within a quarter of 

 a mile of land. 



Q. The rest, how far out ? A. The others fifteen miles off, right off 

 into the gulf; that is, I think about that. The land is very high. W 

 might have been further, but we were wide out. 



Q. What is the width across there ? A. I think it is about, I should, 

 judge, sixty or seventy miles. 



Q. From Seven Islands across to what point! A. To Fox Eiver. 

 (Witness consults map, and points out the places where the fish were 

 caught.) 



