688 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



seven men, and I was there engaged in the herring fishery. There 

 were several American schooners; seven of them were lying off 

 Woody Island, and two French vessels. This island forms the har- 

 bour within half a mile of the narrows of Long Harbour ; and other 

 American schooners and Newfoundland fishing craft were inside 

 Woody Island, which is the inside part of Long Harbour. All the 

 craft there, English and American, were hauling herrings in seines 

 and nets, and the Americans were purchasing herring from the Eng- 

 lish. Everything went off quietly, and the greatest harmony pre- 

 vailed until Sunday, the 6th day of January, when about half-past 2 

 o'clock in the afternoon five seines, belonging to the American schoon- 

 ers, were put into the water by their crews at the beach on the north- 

 east side of Long Harbour. I know two of the captains by name, 

 Dago and Jacobs, belonging to Gloster, United States, but do not 

 know the names of their schooners. The whole five seines were 

 barred full of herrings, when the English crews of the crafts belong- 

 ing to Fortune Bay ordered them to take their seines up or they 

 would take them up for them ; and the Fortune Bay men, finding they 

 would not do as they were requested, then hauled up two of the 

 American seines, but without any damage or injury, and two were at 

 the same time taken up by the Americans; and at the same time a 

 seine belonging to Captain Dago was taken up by the Fortune Bay 

 men, the herrings thrown out, and the seine was torn up and de- 

 stroyed. Before this occurrence on the said Sunday, one of the 

 American schooners had a seine barred with herrings on the beach at 

 Long Harbour for seven days, and it was not at any time meddled 

 with by the Fortune Bay men or any one. Some of the Fortune Bay 

 men had nets out in the water on that Sunday, and the same had 

 been there during the week, but none of the Newfoundland fishermen 

 attempted to haul herrings on Sunday at any time while I was at 

 Long Harbour. The Americans' practice had been until lately to 

 purchase herring from the Newfoundland fishermen in Fortune Bay, 

 but this year and last year the Americans have brought their own 

 seines to haul herring for themselves. The American seines are 30 

 fathoms deep and 200 fathoms long, while those used by our fisher- 

 men are 12 to 13 fathoms deep and 120 fathoms long. These Ameri- 

 can seines are used for barring herring in deep water, such as the 

 Fortune Bay Harbors, viz., Long Harbour, Bay del Nord, and Ren- 

 contre. Our fishermen never bar herrings, and herrings have never 

 been barred in Fortune Bay, to my knowledge, until the Americans 

 brought the large seines I have alluded to into Fortune Bay and used 

 them there to the disadvantage of our fishermen. This mode of 

 barring herrings in such harbours as I have mentioned is most de- 

 structive and ruinous to the herring fishery in those localities. I do 

 not know the names of the persons who destroyed the seines; there 

 were about eighty vessels from different harbours of Fortune Bay 

 at Long Harbour at the time the seine was destroyed by a great lot 

 of people. I left Long Harbour for St. John's on the 31st day of 

 January and arrived here on the 4th instant. 



ALFRED NOEL. 



Sworn before me at St. John's aforesaid, this 8th day February, 

 A. D. 1878. 



(Signed) D. H. PROWSE, 



J . P. for Newfoundland, 



