3404 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



cold water strikes. A. According to Professor Baird's reports there are 

 three notable points where the Arctic current impinges upon the Banks 

 and shoals within the limits of the United States waters and where 

 the cod and mackerel spawning grounds are found. If you will bear in 

 mind the large map we had a short time ago, there were four spots 

 marked upon that map as indicating spawning grounds for mackerel. 

 If you will lay down upon the chart those points, which Professor Ver- < 

 rill baa established as localities where the Arctic current is brought up, 

 you will find that they exactly coincide. One spot is the George's 

 Shoals. 



Q. For the same reason you have spoken of, that the cold Arctic cur- 

 rent is forced to the surface ? A. Yes ; and the marine life found there 

 is that of about 40 degrees temperature. There are three localities 

 where the mackerel spawn, near Block Island, George's Bank, and near 

 Stellwagen's Bank. 



Q. Are those three fishing localities on the American coast, Block 

 Island, George's Bank, and Stellwagen's Bank, in Massachusetts Bay, 

 affected every year, and if so, in what way, by the action of the Gulf 

 Stream ? A. The whole of the coast of the United States, south of 

 Cape Cod, is affected by the Gulf Stream during the summer season. 

 At Stoniugton the temperature is so warm even in June that cod and 

 haddock cannot remain there. They are all driven off by this warui 

 influx of the summer flow of the Gulf Stream. The same observation 

 applies to certain portions of the New England coast. 



Q. Is that the reason, in your judgment, why mackerel are not found 

 there inshore at all except in spring? A. That is chiefly the reason 

 why they are found on the coast of the Unite 1 States close inshore 

 mostly in the spring and fall. They come again in the fall as soon as 

 the water is cool enough. It is quite possible that owing to the preva- 

 lence of certain winds the temperature of the water may be sufficiently 

 cool to permit them, even during the summer mouths, occasionally to 

 come quite close inshore. The Arctic current, coming down from the 

 Spitsbergen seas, passing the southern extremity of Greenland, turning 

 round and coming down to Labrador, and so on, reaches Newfoundland, 

 Nova Scotia, and part of the coast of the United States, and passes 

 underneath the Gulf Stream. Occasionally it comes out in the form of 

 strips in the Gulf Stream, forming what are termed the different cold 

 currents of the gulf. The difference in temperature between the Arctic 

 current on the George's Shoals, for example, and 10 or 20 miles south- 

 west, is from 20 to 25. The difference between the temperature on the 

 Grand Banks and the Gulf Stream, even that distance from the coast 

 of America, is 23, according to Humboldt. The temperature of the 

 Gulf Stream, as given on the large map, is marked in several places at 

 78 in June; the temperature just south of Long Island is marked 

 72jo i n j u ]y t 



Q. Does the Gulf Stream swing in at Block Island ? A. The summer 

 flow of the Gulf Stream swings in with every southern wind, as fur as 

 Halifax Harbor, and brings with it southern fishes. 



Q. Have you noticed any and what difference between the marine 

 life on the coast of the United States and that on the cost of the Do- 

 minion ?-r-A. Yes; the marine life on the coast of the United States, in 

 some parts, is very similar to certain portions on the coast of the Domin- 

 ion. For instance, north of Cape Cod, in all those parts of the sea where 

 the depth is^ver 50, 60, or 70 fathoms, the character of the marine life 

 is identical with the marine life on the sixty-fathom line of soundings 

 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; but it is only where the cold Arctic cur- 



