HHAD /7.syy/:A'v (■umhi^^swx 19 



boat and gill net, and about the same time John Powell from Westport came to the 

 head of St. Clary's bay and drifted for shad. Shad usually swim high but sometimes 

 are on the bottom. TJiey feed on the flats on eel-grass and insects. Some think they 

 feed on millers. The schools remain in the bay from July to September, but a late 

 school appear which are very firm and fat, short and plump, and almost as wide as 

 long, and they were two or four to five pounds in weight. The early roe-fish must 

 have formerly spawned in creeks, but after June there was very little fresh water in 

 them as compared with earlier in the spring. 



(The witness here drew a sketch of the weirs in use for the commission). 

 The twine is 1 inch in the bunt, but the heart is U inch and is heavy twine. The 

 fishermen pull the net down by a pulley to the foot of the 

 ount stakes, and they shoal up the catch by loosing the pulley. A 

 gate is used for small fish. The gill net twine in my opinion 

 'heart should be 4^ inches extension measure. Shad have declined 

 and now only 1 to 4 or 5 shad are taken on a tide. They de- 

 clined gradually hence netting cannot be the cause as Mr. 

 Warner thought. Drifting is very limited now, but twelve 

 years ago 100 boats were out in the bay some seasons, many 

 from Grand Manan, &c. Mackerel are now scarcer as 

 United States poachers came within the three mile limit. 

 The cause of the decline of the fish may be the vast quan- 

 tity of lobster traps in St. !Mary's bay, though that may not 

 ^ ~N^ be the cause. Our method of preparing shad was to cut off 



I ' '^s. the head, and split the back (some split the belly) and take 



\^ ^ \ out the bone as far as the entrails. Then the fish was 



J washed and scraped to get the blood away, then washed 

 twice and placed in a tub or cask and allowed to soak in 

 brine four hours or more. The tail remained on. They 

 must be salted heavy. We took out the hone as they are 



- ^,.. , ,, , difficult to cure with the backbone in. The men at St. .John, 



Diagram of Weirs ot Brush „„ v.. ^t, v i i i j-^ *i i n ■ i . ^i 



with 15 or20 stakes -i^c-. spht the back and left the backbone m, but the men 



of Colchester, Economy, &o.. split shad up the belly. Clean 

 salt water is the best to dress them in and for ' striking ' Liverpool salt is best (in 

 bags). The year of the big catch of shad they were so thick .in the bay that they were 

 got at the surface. Mr. Snow came from Digby with a seine and we thought they 

 were mackerel and we found some with two dory loads and none of them knew how to 

 split and cure shad. I told them to split and soak out the blood and they must put a 

 covering of salt not a sprinkle. Some were not cured as I told them, and the back 

 bone was left in, and when they were brought to Digby thirty or forty barrels spoiled. 

 Overfishing may be the cause of the depletion, but I think the sawdust has injured the 

 shad. The spring spawn shad in my opinion stayed in the hay after they came down 

 and improved. I think that North and South creek in St. Mary's bay are alone suit- 

 able for restocking with shad fry. 



Second Sitting. 



CoiRT ITorsE, Annapolis Eoy.\l, July 30, 190S. 



After the usual opening remarks by Profe.«sor Prince, Chairman, and Mr. Coni- 

 miseioner S. F. ^foRRLSox, evidence was taken. 



P. C. Whitm.^n stated he was a fish merchant in Annapolis. b\it the company with 

 which he was connected did business in the provinces of Quebec, Xew Brunswick 



