520 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [30] 



In reply to his inquiries I ventured the opinion that fish would, in all 

 probability, be caught off our own coast in greater numbers than in 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The correctness of this opinion may, per- 

 haps, best be shown by the following letter from the firm, which ex- 

 plains itself: 



Gloucester, Mass., September 29, 1887. 

 Sir: You may remember about the first of the month we asked you 

 if you could give any information about the prospect of finding mack- 

 erel in or about the Gulf of St. Lawrence and adjacent waters. You 

 said during your trip there in the schooner Grampus, from which you 

 had just returned, you had observed very carefully all signs teuding to 

 show the presence of mackerel in any considerable quantity, and had 

 not found any, and furthermore, you had kept a drag-net out all the 

 time you were sailing and had found absolutely no food for mackerel 

 until upon your return trip you had got nearly home, on Brown's Bank 

 or this side of it, and there you found food in large quantities, which 

 you considered to be a reasonably sure prospect, if mackerel were 

 caught at all, they would be caught upon our own shores; which judg- 

 ment has proved accurate and very valuable. On the 7th of Septem- 

 ber, a few days after our conversation with you, we received a dis- 

 patch from Captain Cameron, of our schooner Gatherer, at Souris, 

 Prince Edward Island, asking for instructions how to proceed, saying 

 the prospect looked to be fair there. Acting upon your opinion, we 

 directed our captain to come home immediately. He started seven 

 days later and caught 350 barrels of mackerel 8 miles from Eastern 

 Point, in Massachusetts Bay, and they were sold for $18 per barrel; 

 the 130 barrels he had on board, caught in Bay St. Lawrence, were 



sold for $13.50 per barrel, and he had been ten weeks catching them. 



# # # # # # # 



Truly yours, 



Rowe & Jordan. 



Capt. J. W. Collins, 



U. 8. Fish Commission, Washington, D. C. 



(h) God. — As has been stated elsewhere, the obtainment of infor- 

 mation concerning the cod, and the fishery which is based upon it, in the 

 regions visited, was thought to be of secondary importance. However, 

 occasional trials for cod were made with hand-lines, and inquiry was 

 made concerning the cod-fishery at the places visited. At the end of 

 this chapter, and in Table II, may be found a summation of the trials 

 with hand-lines and the results obtained, so far as cod are concerned. 

 Also, in " Notes concerning the Newfoundland cod-fishery," the reader 

 will find details of vessels, apparatus, methods, etc. Here I propose to 

 discuss the condition of the fishery in a general way, giving in substance 

 the result of our investigations, so far as they bear upon the status of 

 this industry in 1887, at the places visited by the Grampus. 



