'."J\ 



williiii llirri> miles oftlic land ; tliat tliny <liil not liclicvo that vcss<'l-risliini; cdiild bo 

 prnsrciitcd siicccsslidly thiTc, Ihh-iiiisc it i('(|nircd dccixT wnfor than is iisnally found 

 within tlio dislan<-(> of tliroc mill's, (o rniso a hody of mackerel sunicioiit lor the 

 fishermen on a vessel to take the (Ish profitahly ; that l)nat>tishing is a wholly 

 distinc't tliinp^ from vessel-lishiiify ; that boats may anehor within three miles of the 

 land, and pick np a load in the course of a day at one spot, where mackerel would 

 be loo few, and too small, for a vessel with lifteen men to (ish to any advantat^c. 

 Almost all the evidi-nce in this case of lishiii}; within three miles of the shore relates 

 to the bend of Prince Kdward Island, and t(» the vicinity of Margaree, Ah to the bend 

 of the island, it appears, in the tirst place, that many of onr fishermen ret^ard it as 

 a (lani;erons place, and shnn it on that aeeoiinl, not daring tt) c(mie as near the 

 shore as within three miles, becanse, in case of a gale blowing; on shore, their 

 vessels woidd be likely to be wrecked. It appears also that even a larpc part of the 

 boat-tishin}>; there is carried on more than three miles from the shore. Undoubtedly 

 man\ of the fishermen have testified to the contrary ; many of the boat fishermen 

 froth the island have testified that nearly all their fish were caught within three 

 miles; still it does ap|>ear by evidence that nobody can controvert that a great 

 part ol the boat-fishing is more than three miles <»iif. One of the witnesses from 

 the island, .lames McDonald, says in his deposition, th.it frum the middle of Sep- 

 Icmber to the 1st November not one barrel in .5,000 is caught outside the limits, 

 ami he give; as a reason thai the water will not permit fishing any distance from 

 the shore bec.-iuse it is too rough. But it is perfectly ol)viouH that a man who so 

 testilies, either is s|)eakiiig of fishing in the very smallest kind of boats, little dories 

 that are not fit to go off three miles from the shore, and therefore knows nothing 

 of vessel or large boat fishing; or else he is under the same delusion Ihat appears 

 in the testimony of two other witnesses to which I referred in another conncetion — 

 McNeill, who on page 42 of the British Aflidjivits describes the three-mile limit 

 thus: "A line drawn between two j)oints taken tlirec miles olTthe North Cape and 

 Kast Point of this island ;" and .lohn A. MeLeod, o\\ page 228, who defines the 

 three-mile limit as "a line drawn from points three miles off the headlands." When 

 a witness comes here .and testifies that alter Septembeiiiot one barrel of m.ackercl 

 in /»,0(H) is tiiken outside of the three-mile limit, beciuse it is too rough to go so far 

 »)nt, he is either speaking of a little cockleshell of ji boat that is never fit lo go out 

 more than one or two miles, or else he retains the old notion that the headland-line 

 is to be measured from the two points, and that three miles outside that line (which 

 would be something like twenty-five or thirty miles out fnmi the deepest part of the 

 bend of" the island), is the territorial limit. 



Mr. Thomson. — If you will read the other portion of his deposition you will see 

 that your statemenl is not (juite fair. 



Sir. h'oshtr. — " That the fish are nearly all caught close to the shore, the best 

 fishing-ground being about one and one-half miles from the shore. In October the 

 boats sometimes go olf more than three miles from land. Fully two-thiids of the 

 mackerel are caught within three miles from the shore, and .all are caught within what 

 is known .as the? t!u"ee-mile limit, that is, within .a line drawn between two |)oints 

 taken three miles off the North Cape and Kast Point of this island." (McNeill, 

 p. 12.) We will have this evidence accurately, because I think it sheds considerable 

 light on the subject: "that nine-tenths of our mackerel are caught within one and 

 one-h.alf miles from the shore, and I may say the whole of them are caught within 

 three miles of the shore." (McLeod, p. 228.) Somewhere the expression "not one 

 barrel in ."),00o " occurs. It is in one of those allidavits — perhaps in the fifst one. 

 I have -ead the passage so as to do no injustice to the statement of the witness. 



Mr. Hall testifie(l that for a month before the day of his testimony, that is to 

 say, after about the first week in September, no mackerel were caught within live 

 or six miles of the sliore, and he applied that statement to the specimen m.ackerel 

 which were brought hero for our inspection and our taste; and Mr. Myrick, from 

 Rustico, told the same story. Moreover, all their witnesses, in speaking of the 

 prosperity of the fishing business of the island, which has been dwelt upon an<l 

 dilated upon so much, speak of the fact that not only are the boats becoming more 

 numerous, but they build them larger every year — longer, deeper, and bigger boats. 

 Why ? To go farther from the shore. So said Mr. Churchill. I call that a pretty 

 decisive test of the (piestion. What proportion of the mackerel is caught within three 

 miles of the shore .' What docs Professor Hind say on that subject? In the Report 

 that has been furnished us he says (p. 90) : "Mackerel-catching is a special industry 

 and reipiires sea-going vessels. The boat equipment, so commun throughout 

 [280] 2 11 



