152 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF Flt^H AND FISHERIES. [36] 



captain. A trip usually lasts about three weeks, from four to six tons 

 of ice being required to jjreserve the catch. I consider a vessel of this 

 size to be worth about $12,000. There are many more vessels engaged 

 in this business at present than there were six years ago. We save from 

 all fish the livers : from cod, the sounds and tongues. We clean and dry 

 the sounds taken from hake, which are used for a different purpose than 

 those taken from cod. Other varieties of fish, such as haddock, cusk, 

 halibut, pollock, &c., are taken on all parts of this bank while fishing 

 for cod, and almost all other varieties known in our waters are plenty 

 here at certain seasons of the year." 



The morning of the 23d was clear and pleasant. At 2 p. m., while on 

 Brown's Bank, we saw a school of porpoises and a grampus. We saw 

 a number of fishing vessels, but none near enough to speak without going 

 out of our course. All were under way trying the bottom for fish. At 

 5.56 p. m. boarded the schooner Lydia Eyder, of Pubnico, Nova Scotia, 

 which was then taking fish. The captain made the following statement : 



" We have been out 8 days and have taken 1,000 pounds of codfish, 

 which are salted in our hold in bulk. We use for bait herring, mack- 

 erel, and squid, which are caught in nets at the port from which we 

 sailed. I have not seen any mackerel for the last month ; think that 

 most of them are at present around the Magdalen Islands, as I have 

 seen a number of vessels bound in that direction. Mackerel come to 

 our place about the middle of May and leave about the last of June. 

 Menhaden never come to our shores. We prepare our own fish, which, 

 when ready for market, bring from four to five dollars per quintal. About 

 the average stock for a vessel of this class for four months is $5,000. 

 These vessels are used to carry freight d uring the rest of the year. We 

 have no other officers save a captain. We fish altogether off from the 

 vessel with hand lines. The vessel pays for one-third of the outfit, and 

 takes one-third of the catch. The crew find their own provisions, pay 

 the cook, furnish their own lines and hooks, two-thirds of the salt, bar- 

 rels, &G., and take the other two-thirds of the fish. We found fish the 

 first day we came on the bank. Our bait will hardly last fresh ten days 

 on ice. There are 25 sail on the bank in this business. We catch, be- 

 sides cod, haddock, halibut, cusk, and other varieties of food-fishes, be- 

 sides many kinds of trash fishes." 



On the morning of the 24th, I boarded the schooner T. W. L. Geser, 

 of Westport, Nova Scotia, on Grand Manan Bank. Capt. E. M. Peters 

 made the following statement : 



" Fish are very scarce. I have been out from home fourteen days 

 and have caught 80 quintals of codfish, which are salted in bulk in the 

 hold. I have not seen any mackerel this trip, but last trip, four weeks 

 ago, saw a great many, which were schooling in all directions for three 

 days together. This vessel uses trawls, which are set from dories, of 

 which she carries three, two men going in each. On the 20th of last 

 June I lost one dory, with two men. They went out to set their trawl, 



