3300 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Gaspe" ; do hereby declare solemnly that I am now about forty-eight 

 years of age that since the age of eleven years, I have been constantly 

 engaged in the business of the fisheries, both in fishing and transport- 

 ing fish. in the Gulf 'of St Lawrence along the North shore from 

 Natashquan to the Moisie river, and off the North side of Anticosti, 

 taking codfish only. excepting Halibut when caught on the lines. 

 (but we do not fish for the latter purposely. ) We do not catcb one 

 half of the quantity of fish we caught about eighteen years ago .on 

 an average The fisheries haVe evidently declined for a number of years 

 past from what cause it is impossible to say 



Mackerel fish are disappearing from their former usual haunts. 

 About eleven years ago on the North side of Anticosti we seined iu 

 our boats about two hundred barrels in one fishing season but since 

 that time the Mackerel have appeared there but once in numbers and 

 we have had no other opportunity to make a haul of them as they clear 

 right away again immediately after showing themselves and we can- 

 not tell where they go to. American fishing vessels used to be seen by us 

 in large numbers about fifteen years ago but since that time they are 

 only rarely seen iu our fishing waters excepting near the Magdalen 

 Islands, & Prince Edward Island. Iu my experience of about thirty 

 seven years on the water and coast, I cannot remember to have seen 

 American fishermen curing fish or drying nets on shore, with the 

 exception of one summer at Grande Grave, Gaspe Bay, many years 

 ago. I consider that it is a great advantage to the people of the shores 

 for American fishermen to buy bait, supplies &tc from them for 

 they profit by the transactions and get money which they would not 

 otherwise get. In the days when the Mackerel fishing was good the 

 people did well for Americans spent a good deal of money on the 

 coast. For the last twelve or fourteen years I have been fishing regu- 

 larly off the coast of Anticosti, during the fishing seasons, with my 

 own vessel aud crew, and am intimately acquainted with the fisheries 

 around that island my opinion is that Mackerel will never appear again 

 at Anticosti as in former years they are too long gone now 



I believe that from the less cost of building, equipping, and man- 

 ning our fishing vessels, and being upon the spot that we could take 

 our fish into American ports and undersell American fishermen in their 

 own markets if we possessed the energy to make the attempt 



I declare solemnly to my belief in the truth of the foregoing state- 

 ment which I have made with deliberation. 



JOHN HOWELL 



Declared aud subscribed to before me, this ninth day of July 1877, at 

 Gaspe" Basin : 



(Seal.) GEO: H HOLT 



U. S. Consul 

 No. 232. 



PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



GASPE BASIN June 23rd. 1877 



I. William Howell of Sandy Beach Gaspe" Bay, do hereby sol- 

 emnly declare that my occupation is that of a fisherman that. I have 

 fished in the bay of Gaspe" ; off Island of Antico.sti, and Straits of Labra- 

 dor. for Mackerel Codfish and Whales Herring &c for the past 

 twenty six years on the best fishing grounds of the Gulf of St Law- 

 rence and adjacent waters. In former years say from 1854 to 1865 

 I have been accustomed to take during the fishing season from fifteen 



