.3408 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



verbally, simply because you have written the same things in a report? 

 A. No. 



Q. You have spoken of islands along the coast. Some of our wit- 

 nesses spoke of catching fish in eddies. Is not the effect of the islands 

 to mackerel eddies ? A. The food is carried backwards aud forwards ia 

 the eddies. 



Q. Do the eddies preserve the food for the fish ? A. Yes ; in a very 

 remarkable way. I had special opportunities last summer of sailing 

 among eddies for hundreds of miles on the coast of Labrador and of 

 observing many of the remarkable phenomena connected with this 

 food. 



Q. What is the effect of the eddies? A. To concentrate food. 



Q. And they will consequently be frequented by the fish ? A. Yes ; 

 it is with that view I have described on these charts the movements of 

 the mackerel. 



Q. How do the eddies preserve the food ? A. They move in circles 

 and ellipses and prevent the food from being carried away. The swing 

 of the tides depends altogether on the locality where they may happen 

 to be. The swing of the tide in the Bay of Fundy I mention the Bay 

 of Fundy because the tides are developed to a greater extent there 

 than on any other locality on this continent is about 35 miles. Fish 

 food is carried up the bay about thirty-five miles and brought back to 

 the same place with the turn of the tide, thus continually swinging 

 backward and forward for 35 miles for months together. It frequently 

 happens that during the winter season vessels caught in the ice will for 

 three or lour weeks swing backward and forward in the middle of the 

 bay. The swing depends on the heighth of the tide, because that gov- 

 erns its velocity, and it varies from 15 to 35 miles in linear extent. 



Q. When practical fishermen state they get fish in the eddies, that 

 would agree with your scientific information ? A. Quite so. 



Q. In the same way, you say that the statement that more fish is 

 caught inshore than out in the gulf would square with your scientific 

 knowledge? A. More mackerel. 



Q. On the American coast, is there a great number of large manu- 

 factories on the rivers entering the sea ? Are you aware of that ; and 

 state what influence the American manufactories have on the fisheries? 

 A. I could not say that the American manufactories have any effect. 

 I think the quantity of material brought down in the rivers has no 

 effect on the sea fish, only on the river fish. Damage would be pro- 

 duced by mill-darns obstructing the passage up, but the sea is a reser- 

 voir so vast, and constantly moving, that a small quantity of foreign 

 material introduced into a river has no effect on the sea. 



Q. What is the effect of throwing overboard gurry on fishing- 

 grounds ? A. That depends entirely on the locality. Where there is a 

 strong current there is little or no effect at all. When fishermen throw 

 overboard, as they frequently do, the back-bone of the codfish when fish 

 are cleaned on deck, it has a very prejudicial effect on those fish which 

 feed on the offal. That is explained in this way : The cod, as fish do as 

 a general rule, take the food head foremost. The reason is that the fins 

 would present an obstruction to their passage down the gullet of the 

 cod, but when they take the fish head foremost they are easily passed 

 down. When the back-bone of ,the fish is swallowed, in the endeavors 

 which the cod constantly makes to throw up, it sticks in the stomach 

 aud remains there, and the cod are very frequently taken in what fish- 

 ermen call a logy condition, with a portion of the vertebra penetrating 

 the entrails. That frequently happens when gurry is thrown overboard. 



