AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 3311 



in, throwing the offal overboard. I never heard of such a thing as in- 

 jury to the fish, in throwing over fresh offal. In all my experience in 

 American vessels, I never knew of any collisions with the boat fisher- 

 men ; on the contrary, the best of feeling has ever been manifested, the 

 boat fishermen coming on board the American vessels for bait, and also 

 to grind their bait in our mills. This last trip I gave away more than 

 three barrels of bait to the boat fishermen. I know that there is less 

 than one fourth of the mackerel taken by the American fleet, taken 

 within three miles. Distance on the water is very deceptive, and look- 

 ing from the shore any one would be liable to be deceived in the dis- 

 tance a vessel was from the shore, especially when the water is smooth. 

 I have often to settle a question among the crew, put over the patent 

 log, and run, and invariably the distance supposed to be three miles 

 would tally over five miles. This will account for much of the mistaken 

 statements of people on shore, as to distance on the water, especially 

 off high lauds. I have been mackereliug more or less on the American 

 shore for nearly 20 years. I have stocked on one year's mackereling, off 

 the American shore, $13,600.00, and my lowest stock in any one year 

 was $7,200.00. I stocked on the American shore mackereliug, last year, 

 $11,000.00. 



This year I have seen many of the fish called albicores in the Gulf, in 

 the Bay of Chaleur, and all along the coast. I consider this fish as fatal 

 to the mackerel and menhadden, as wolves would be among sheep. I 

 have seen none of these fish for a number of years before this year, and 

 I am of the opinion, firmly, that the scarcity of mackerel in the Gulf, 

 and on all the Atlantic coasts, is owing to their presence. There is a 

 mutual convenience in the trading of the American fleet in the Gulf and 

 along the shore. There is really a great benefit derived by the inhabit- 

 ants by this trade, and the absence of the American fleet makes a decay 

 in business that is universally felt. The mackerel fishery at the best is 

 a very uncertain business, and the causes of their being plenty or scarce 

 are beyond the computation of any man. 



And there is no such thing as making a safe estimate of value from 

 one year to another, and all calculations based on so called certainties 

 as to where the mackerel will be this year, or next, are chimerical. 



I have been master of the following vessels : Golden Eagle, Farragut, 

 Sea Foam. Falcon. 



CHAKLES F. CARTER. 



COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



GLOUCESTER, Aug. 22th, 1877. 

 COUNTY OF ESSEX ss. 



Then personally appeared the above names Charles F. Carter and 

 made oath, that all the above statements by him subscribed are true to 

 the best of his knowledge and belief. Before me, 



DAVID W. LOW, 

 (L. S.) Notary Public. 



No. 244. 



I, Winthrop Thurston, of Rockport, Mass., on oath, depose and say, 

 that I have been accustomed to reside at Grand Manan, N. B., every 

 summer for the past fifteen years, and am personally cognisant with the 

 mode and manner by which American vessels obtain their bait, which 

 is done to great extent ; and they uniformly buy their herring for bait 



