3338 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



No. 270. 



GLOUCESTER, Aug. 27, 1877. 



I, Jesse Lewis, Master of the American schr. Alice M. Leicis, of Glou- 

 cester, on oath do depose and say, that I was born in Kittery, Maine, 

 am 48 years age, and have been engaged in the fisheries 35 years. I 

 have just arrived from the Gulf of St. Lawrence from a mackereling trip. 

 I commenced to fit my vessel for this trip the 1st of July, 1877. I sailed 

 from Gloucester the oth of July, arrived in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 about the 14th of July. Was fitted with a purse seine and boat, and 

 one small seine. The first mackerel 1 took two miles off East Point, in 

 the seine, about 100 brls., mostly twos ; % from there went off Point 

 Miscou and Gaspe ; got no mackerel there ; "came back to Prince Edward 

 Island ; caught 50 brls. on the hook near the shore. We afterward went 

 to the Magdalen Islands, and caught about 50 brls. on the hook, along 

 the shore. The average of these mackerel were twos, worth 12 dollars 

 per bbl. Our trip packed out 175 bbls., and brought 2,100 dollars. 



My trip will consume just two months' time, for vessel and crew. 



The charter of my vessel, at $250 per month, 500 00 



Wages of 15 men, at $33 per month, 9UO 00 



Outfits, viz., provisions, salt, barrels, etc., 500 00 



Insurance, 100 00 



Packing, 131 25 



Expense of seines, wear and mending and use, 200 00 



Hooks and lines, 25 00 



Total cost, $2, 356 25 



Total receipts, $2, 100 00 



Actual and real loss, $256 25 



I have been in the Bay 28 seasons, 24 mackereling and 4codfishing. 

 My average stock for the whole of the seasons in the Bay is $4,500 a 

 season. Not over one-third of the mackerel I have taken there were 

 taken within three miles of the shore. We always throw overboard 

 the cleanings of the mackerel, except what we save to use as throw-bait. 

 The fish come eagerly after this offal. I never heard of any being poisoned 

 by it; but they swarm to get it. I never heard any fishermen complain, 

 as I have seen them this year, the British boats throwing all their offal 

 overboard. This is the universal practice of all fishermen, American and 

 English. 



The practice of lee-bowing is universal, both by English and Ameri- 

 can vessels. I never knew of any British boats being injured by the 

 American schooners. The American and British mode of fishing are 

 entirely different, as the boat fishing is a shore fishery, and the large 

 American schooners cannot, on account of the depth of water, fish 

 where the boats generally resort. The boats obtain many favors from 

 the American vessels, such as using their mills to grind bait, and often 

 giving them salt and bait. The boat fishermen, as a class, have always 

 been jealous of the American fishermen. I have this year given bait 

 to a number of their boats. The years that our fishermen were totally 

 excluded from the inshore mackerel fishing by the cutters, they made 

 the best fares. That is my personal experience. I know of no inshore 

 codfishery pursued by American vessels in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 1 never caught a codfish there inside of 15 miles from the shore, nor 

 ever knew any American vessel so doing. 



