lyTERlM REPORT 51 



notice before cutting out the present shad net and require a larger mesh. The small 

 salujon now got are full of spawn, but the reason why the original salmon of the bay 

 i^ a small iisli is that there were no larger breed of tish until the fry of a larger sal- 

 mon were planted. The later fish were larger and a different shape. The mesh used 

 was 4i inch, but later 5 inch was used. We got fewer but a larger class of fish and 

 the weight of our catch was probably as great for the season. 



In continuation of the evidence taken at the sitting on August 13, at Halifax, 

 X.S., the following further evidence was given on September IS. ■ Commissioner S. F. 

 Morrison, being present. 



George Gregoike^ Fish Merchant^ Halifax, said: — I remember shad fishing in 

 the Bay of Fundy from the time I was a boy say of twelve years of age, sixty-three 

 years ago. In the year 1845, I w-as working with Mr. Tristram Halliday, of Halifax, 

 who was a dealer in fish and the first canner of fish in this country. Mr. Halliday was 

 a Scotsman, and had been fishing shad in the bay two or three years before I joined 

 him. That year I had been fishing with him down to the eastward, and left there to 

 assist in shad fishing in the bay. I arrived there on June 24, which ^as my twelfth 

 birthday. The boat* were there, being left there from the year before. We took nets 

 with us. The boats were bought in New Brunswick, and were skiffs. We fished seven 

 skiffs that year, our buildiugs being on Daniel HiU's property at Economy Cove. Each 

 uet was sixty fathoms long, four nets to a gang. The nets were made of fine mullet 

 twine and knit by our own men in the factory in winter. The size of the mesh was 5 

 inches, and 45 meshes deep, mounted on a top rope with floats, on a third extension 

 of the mesh. The bottom rope had sinkers. We fished at night by drifting up the bay 

 on flood tide, returning on the ebb tide going down past our own place to low water 

 and coming back home on the flood tide. We usually picked our nets three times at 

 night. In these years and up to 1S56-7 with the gear described, and the time spent in 

 drifting we would kiU from 400 to 600 or 700 shad in a night. They were all big fat 

 Xo. 1 shad. The first year I went to fish shad we arrived at the fishing grounds on 

 June 24, and got to work fishing July 1. At this time there was very little fishing 

 done outside of Mr. Halliday's Company. One or two farmers had short nets and 

 worked a little at it. Mr. Halliday also had a weir in back of Economy Point. It 

 was hung to iron posts the mesh being i-iucli, it was net. He did not want shad 

 caught with a smaller mesh than 5 inches, and in that way took nothing hut Xo. 1 

 and No. 2 fish. We fished this weir for two years but it didn't pay, he said he lost 

 $2,000 on it. This weir was not put in until after we went to fish about July 1. The 

 salmon were not very plenty then, each boat took from two to ten or twelve a night, 

 weighing from four to five pounds. The largest I ever saw taken then was eleven 

 poimds. It was rolled up in the net. Mr. Halliday sent his fish to the Boston market. 

 He put up No. 2 shad, splitting them and leaving the head, backbone and tail on them. 

 The No. 1 shad he put up with the backbone in them. The year I was with him he 

 began to dress them by taking the head off, taking out the backbone with the tail sell- 

 ing them as No. 1 ' mess shad.' I think I was the first man on the bay to split shad in 

 that way. From 102 to 105 of these No. I's shad without head and bones would fill a 

 barrel of 200 pounds. I think shad brought from $16 to $18 per barrel in Boston. We 

 generally fished in Economy for about six weeks or perhaps not more than five weeks 

 steady fishing. As soon as a boat couldn't bring in more than 300 shad of a night Mr. 

 Halliday would stop fishing. I fished with Mr. Halliday seven years. I worked in the 

 factory at Halifax with him when I wasn't working with the canners, and I helped to 

 knit nets. After this I fished nine summers with Mr. Joha O'Brien of Noel. We 

 used the same size mesh and 400 fathoms of net. I used to kill from 400 to TOO shad 

 a night. Wlien the shad fell off to 200 at a catch I stopped. I fished by the hundred, 

 at $1 iier 100. I have caught shad at Petite and generally got a good run of them 



