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278 



the mackerel witliin the three-mile range. I dou't know but they have. I don't think anything more 

 thau a touth part, certainly." 



Joseph O. Proctor, of GIouccstiT, on page 19G, says: — 



" From the best of my jniliimcnt, the knowlodgo I have wliero my vo.ssoLs Imve been, and rnnvprsa- 

 tion with tlio iiiiusters of tliu vossols, I liolieve that not oiio-cij,'lith uf tlio niuckiTt'l have boeu caugl.t 

 ■within, I should say less, and [ should not say any nioro. It is iumuoi- a tiMilh tlian an eighth. 



"Q. 1 )o you know where the Lidk iscauglit? — A. At the Magdalens, or between the MagJnlena 

 and Cheticamp." 



Captain Ezra Turner, of Gloucester, page 226, testifios — 



" Q. Have you over fished off Prince Edward Island ? — A. Yes. I have fislied all round the east 

 side wlierever anybody fished. 



" Q. Did you fish within three miles of tho shore tliere ? — A. No. It is a rare thing that ever you 

 got mackerel within the three miles. Vhen they Cdiiie witjiin time miles they rise in scliuols, and wo 

 never calculate to do much out of thtm, but from four to six and seven miles off is the common fishing 

 ground there." 



The Commissioners will recollect the testimony of Mr. Myrick, an American 

 niercliant, who had established himself on Prince Kdward Island. The inshore fisliery, 

 he said, is not suited to American vessels. Our vessels are large ; they are built at 

 a distance ; they are manned by sixteen or seventeen men ; tiiey cost a great deal ; they 

 require large catchre, and dealing with fish in large quantilies; they deal at wlioiesalc 

 altogether, and not at retail. Retailing^ woidd ruin tliem. Anything short of large catclies, 

 large amounts, would be their end, and compel all the merchants to give up the business, 

 or to lake to boat fisliing, which, of course, Gloucester or Massachusetts, or New 

 England, or any part of the United ?<tates could not undertake to carry on here. It 

 has been stated to the tribunal, by experienced men, as you cannot but renu'mber, that 

 our fishermen object to going very near shore in the Gidf of St. Lawrence. There 

 are perils of weather connected with the coast which cannot be set aside by ridicule. 

 Gloucester is a town fidl of widows and orphans, whose husbands and parents have laid 

 their boiu's upon this coast, and upon its rocks and reefs, trusting too nuich to the 

 appearance of fine weather, as we all did last night, waking up this morning in a tempest. 

 Gloucester has tried \n ])ro\i<le for these bereft people, by every fisherman voluntarily 

 paying a small percentage of his earnings to constitute a widows' and orphans' fund. 

 Even the tempestuous Magdalen Islands are safer for vessels than are the inshore coasts 

 of those islancis, where we are now permitted to fish ; their harbours are poor, their 

 entrances are sliallowed by sand-bars, whicli are sliifting, which shift with every very 

 high wind, and sometimes with the season. They are well enough after you get inside 

 of tliem, but they are dangerous to enter, to persons inexperienced — dangerous to any 

 by night ; and if a vessel is caught near the shore by a wind blowing inshore, against 

 which she cannot beat with sails, for none of them carry steam, then she is in innnediato 

 peril. They therefore give a wide berth to the inshore fisheries in the nuiin. They 

 resort to them only occasionally. They are not useful for fishing with our seines. We 

 find tliat the purse seim^s are too deep, that they are cut by the ground, which is rocky ; 

 that it is impossible to shorten ifiem without searing the mackerel, which nuist be taken 

 by seines run out a great dislanee, for thev are Vf>ry (juick of sight, and very suspicious 

 of man ; and they soon find their way out of the seines, unless they are laid a considerable 

 distance off. 



We need not catch our mackert>l bait any more than our cod bait, within the three- 

 mile limit. On the contrary, the best mackerel bail in the world is the manliaden, 

 which we bring from New Kngland. All admit that. The British witnesses say they 

 would use it, were it not that it is too costly. They have to buy it froni American 

 vessels, and they betake themselves to an inferior kind of bait when they cannot allbrd 

 to buy the be.st bait from us. And another residt is that the Americans have shown lor 

 many years that what are called the shore mackerel — that is, those that are caught off 

 tlie coast of Massachusetts and several other of the New Kngland States, are really 

 better than the bay mackerel. The evidence of that is the nuirket prices they bring. 

 It is not a matter of oi)ip.ion. We have not called as witnesses persons who have only 

 tasted them, and might have prejudices or peculiar tastes, but we have shown the market 

 value. 



Jami's H. Myrick, page 4.1,1, American evidence, in answer to the question — " For a 

 few vears past, which have sold tor the highest price, nund)er ones from the bay oi 

 nnmiicr ones from th(! American shore ?" says, *' Oh, their shore mackerel have been the 

 best (luality of fish." 



