xiv SHAD FISHERY COMMISSION 



This demand and encouragement, have had a wonderful effect in stimulating 

 our fishermen to increased exertions, and greater care in curing, so that the fish may 

 command the highest price, and sustain their character. That the supply is inex- 

 haustible, is plain to every one ; for, notwithstanding the number of persons employed, 

 and the means for capture have greatly increased within the last few years, there 

 appears not the least diminution in the quantity of fish — none complain. If the con- 

 templated railroad were now in operation, and the Canadian market, now shut to us 

 by circuitous navigation, should be rendered easily accessible, a large field would be 

 opened for our fisheries. The energies and enterprise of our fishermen would receive 

 additional excitement, and the whole trade would flow in that direction to avoid the 

 heavy duty of one dollar per barrel exacted by the American government. We con- 

 sider our shad fishery to be only in its infancy; and not a doubt can be entertained, 

 that when a larger field is opened, and improvements introduced in the modes of 

 capture and cure, that the trade will become extensive, of great importance, and 

 highly lucrative. 



You will perceive, that all my observations have been confined to the shad 

 fishery, in and around Minudie, and the' neighbouring bay of Dorchester, at the mouth 

 of the Petitcodiac. The same fishery is carried on along the coast to Chignecto, and 

 about the shores of Parrsboro', and no doubt equal quantities are caught there; but 

 for more full information, I must refer you to persons in those localities. 



I have nothing to say as to other fisheries here, they being too insignificant to 

 demand even a passing notice. VTith my desire, that the foregoing may be found 

 useful and satisfactory. 



I have the honour, &c., 



Amos Seamak. 

 M. H. Perley, Esq. 



Nothing demonstrates the decline of this fishery more emphatically than a com- 

 parison of the present small number of boats and men engaged as compared with the 

 larger fleets of boats and the numerous body of fishermen who followed shad fishing 

 thirty or forty years ago. 



Thus, at Wood point, N.B., according to Captain Peckham's evidence, we find 

 that about 1875 there were forty boats fishing in a distance of two miles; but tho 

 number is insignificant now, while at Pre d'en Haut iu the early seventies, from 

 130 to 140 boats fished in a distance of .about ten miles, 37 of them going out from 

 one landing, at which landing at present one boat only is engaged in fishing. 



From Port a Pique to Economy point, a distance of ten to fifteen miles, there 

 were upwards of 90 boats, as one witness described it, " they were thick like black 

 ducks," but now only 10 or 12 boats in the bay here. Another witness added that 

 there was not a boat fishing from Economy at present. 



Historical References. 



Early records establish beyond question the abundant and widespread distribu- 

 tion of shad along the Atlantic shores, bays and rivers of North America. When 

 the English colonists settled what now constitutes the Eastern States they found the 

 shad to be one of the most abundant of all the food fishes frequenting the estuaries, 

 rivers and bays referred to. The famous William Penn, in a letter to the Duke of 

 York dated Philadelphia, January 9th, 1683, gave the information that — " our rivers 

 have also plenty of excellent fish and water fowl, as sturgeon, rock, shad, herring, 

 etc." Few incomers from Europe were previously acquainted with the shad, which 

 is very rare along the shores of the German ocean, though abundant in the Severn, 



