3416 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



or depth in which the fish are to be found. They then set their seines 

 according to the depth at which the fish are found. 



Q. Do you mean to say that the zone where the fish are to be found 

 is ascertained by the government ! A. Yes; this is done under the su- 

 pervision of the government. 



Q. For the information of the fishermen! A. Yes; and the fisher- 

 men are also provided with thermometers to ascertain the zone or depth, 

 at which the fish are to be found. I ought to say that they did not 

 provide the fishermen with thermometers for that particular purpose, but 

 lor the testing of the temperature of the sea-water, with the view of ascer- 

 taining the days and hours when the herring fishery is most likely to be 

 productive ; and in Scotland the fishermen now are provided with ther- 

 mometers ; that is to say, those who are capable of using thermometers. 

 So it also is with respect to the Dutch Government, which has provided 

 most of their fishermen with thermometers to ascertain the temperature 

 of the sea, with a view to instructing them as to the period and day or 

 hour when they should sink their nets, how deep they shall sink them ; 

 and I have no doubt that these thermometers will, in the course of two 

 or three years, become an agent of very great value with regard to our 

 fisheries, enabling us to ascertain the depth at which they are likely 

 to find herring in the fall, or, if we can, in the spring, in the different 

 zones of water. 



By Mr. Whiteway : 



Q. Have you any other information to impart regarding the effect of 

 these descriptions of ice upon the fisheries * A. I have prepared some 

 diagrams, but I did not think them worthy of remark, and consequently 

 1 did not bring them with me. These are merely to show fishing places 

 in the bays, but they lead to results which, if viewed in a proper manner, 

 can be properly interpreted. Very frequently you find, for example, cod 

 coming in without caplin and caplin coming in without cod ; sometimes, 

 too, you find tons of dead caplin lying upon the surface of the beach. 

 Xow, I think that the explanation of this fact is exceedingly simple. It 

 arises from this circumstance : I observed myself last year, while wan- 

 dering for weeks, at least for a fortnight, among a field of ice composed 

 of frozen detached pieces, extending over a surface of fifty square miles, 

 that no cod and no caplin came underneath that ice ; they would not 

 pass through the cold current which was perpetually falling and form- 

 ing beneath it. The fishermen prophesied where these fish were to be 

 found, and I ascertained that they were found, as they intimated would 

 be the case. The explanation of this is exceedingly simple. The 

 caplin and cod come in, and meeting the ice, will not strike through 

 the cold current which is falling the while from the melting ice, and 

 is being carried along the coast ; but instead of striking across to their 

 customary haunts, they in such event proceed along the edge of the 

 field until they reach the grounds at its extremity. They would not pass 

 through this cold current, and having practical knowledge of this fact, 

 the fishermen are enabled to go to the right spot where the fish are to 

 be found. 



Q. You were on the coast of Labrador last summer, I believe ? A. 

 Yes. 



Q. How far did you go up it ? A. I went up 350 miles beyond Belle 

 Isle. 



Q. Did you make there any discoveries as regards the existence of 

 banks in the neighborhood of the coast of Labrador ? A. I should not 

 call them discoveries, for I simply described what the fishermen had 



