AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 3419 



titnony seems to be that if they were cut off from the means of obtaining 

 fresh herring and caplin for use on the Grand Banks, it would be impos- 

 sible for them to continue that fishery to one-half the extent they now 

 do. They have long since exhausted, or nearly exhausted, the caplin 

 fishery upon the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, where they used to 

 supply themselves, some 40 or 50 years ago, with this bait, and as far 

 as I can gather from conversation and also from the statistics I have 

 obtained, the annual quantity of herring which they require varies from 

 70,000 to 100,000 barrels ; while the annual quantity of caplin that they 

 need varies from 40,000 to 60,000 hogsheads, and so on. 



Q. Have you any knowledge as regards the value which the French 

 put upon their fishery rights on the coast of Newfoundland 1 A. I 

 have only the knowledge which history affords in this relation, which is 

 that they have always been most tenacious of those rights, from the 

 time when the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon were conceded to 

 them, together with certain supposed rights on the western coast and on 

 the northeast coast of Newfoundland. They have not only been, but 

 are now at the present time most tenacious of those rights ; and it has 

 been a source of constant difficulty between the British fishermen and 

 the French fishermen, with reference to the supposed encroachments of 

 British fishermen on the fishing grounds they claim. 



Q. Are you aware as regards the number of men and nets employed 

 by the French in these fisheries ? A. I have gathered here the statistics 

 which are published by Admiral Cloue", who for many years was on 

 that coast, and who is the author of the French work entitled Pilote de 

 Terre-Neuve, which is the only great authority not only for the French, 

 but when translated also for the British, for a very great deal of our 

 information respecting the coast of Newfoundland. Now, these tables 

 are taken from his official work, and if necessary I can produce the 

 work itself, which I obtained for that purpose from the Library of Par- 

 liament at Ottawa. It comprises two volumes in French, and is entitled 

 Pilote de Terre Neuve par Le Contre- Admiral G. C. Cloue. These tables 

 relate to the different fishing stations, and describe the character, as 

 far as vessels and men are concerned, of the French fishing grounds, 

 the Bank fishing-grounds, the Gulf fishing grounds, and the northeast 

 coast fishing grounds, and what they call the dory fishery. Tables Nos. 

 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 give the statistics of each kind of fishery, the number of 

 men employed in them and the kind of vessels engaged in them. I have 

 also the number of boats so engaged. 



Q. Those named as coast-fishing vessels are those which fish upon 

 the coast between Cape Kay and Cape St. John, I believe ? A. There 

 appear to be two classes of vessels which fish between Cape Ray and 

 Quirpon, forming the western coast, and part of the coast of the Straits 

 of Belle Isle ; and another, and totally different class of vessels which 

 fish from Quirpon to -Cape St. John. The vessels that fish between 

 Quirpon and Cape St. John are very large, but the fishery is almost 

 exclusively carried on in open boats, close inshore, simply because the 

 water is profound and deep close inshore along the northeastern Atlan- 

 tic coast, whereas upon the gulf coast of Newfoundland in many places 

 it is shoal; and there is a class of fishermen there called the Ddsfileurs, 

 who are supposed to follow the cod from the Islands of St. Pierre and 

 Miquelon up to the extreme northern point of the Island of Newfound- 

 laud, where they join the French fishermen at the port of Quirpon. 



Q. The desfileurs fish sometimes within three miles of the shore and 

 sometimes outside of this limit ? A. They fish more frequently, I be- 

 lieve, outside; and then we have a class of men who fish in dories alto- 



