They throw a purse-seine of sometimes one hundred and fifty fathoms in length, and sometimes twenty in depth, and sweep the bottom, thus often causing great loss to our cod-fishing, besides disturbing our boats lying at anchor. This I look upon as a most serious trouble, and it is increasing.

6. That when mackerel strike in here and we have a biting school of them, I consider the coming of the Americans as the end of the fishing; they interfere with our boats and draw the school right off the coast, and break up the school. They do this by throwing bait and drifting away, drawing the mackerel after them. In a number of cases they drift down on the boats, and I have known a number of boats to be dismasted by them. Often the boats have to get under way to get clear of them.

7. The privilege of transshipment I consider is a very great one to the Americans; they are thereby enabled to come into our harbors, pack out and send home their fares by railway, without losing much time, and I believe they can refit here much cheaper than at home. This must save them at least three weeks in each trip, in the matter of going home, which would be equal to another trip in the course of the summer. They also get their fish home much quicker, and can take advantage of the fluctuations of the markets. I have known instances of Americans making as much as three and four trips a season into Charlottetown to transship.

8. Since having the Island Railway, they can pack out in Alberton with greater facility than in Charlottetown, and without leaving the fishing-ground.

9. The cleaning of large quantities of mackerel on our coast by the Americans, aud throwing over the offal, injures our cod-fishing.

10. The American schooners often cause great injury and annoyance to our boats fishing mackerel, by drifting down upon them and taking away the mackerel, and compelling the boats to give way.

11. To my own knowledge a large fleet of American schooners fish around this island, from New London Head to North Cape, and thence to West Point, and generally within three miles of the shore. Masters and crews of American vessels look upon it as a very great privilege to be allowed to fish near shore, and if they were not allowed to do so, I do not believe many of them would fit out for the gulf fishing.

12. When the cutters were about, the American captains used to run the risk of capture and loss of vessel and outfit, in order to fish inshore, and some of them were taken. The cutters did protect our fishermen a good deal and our boats enjoyed greater security, but our coast was not sufficiently protected; there were not enough cutters. I believe that about ten schooners, as cutters, would protect the fisheries from Scatterie, in Cape Breton, all the island coasts, and up the New Brunswick coast to Misko, and probably up the Bay Chaleur. Schooners of fifty or sixty tons would be the best cutters. In fact, that number would cover the whole mackerel fisheries for Cape Breton, Magdalen Islands, and New Brunswick, and would effectually keep the Americans out of the three-mile limit.

13. Large quantities of herring are now seined every year at Magdalen Islands by American fishermen, and they ship these herring away to Sweden, Norway, and southern markets.

14. The Americans derive great benefit from being able to go down to the coast of Newfoundland, to Bay Fortune, and up to Bay of Islands, where they catch large quantities of herring, which they freeze and send down to bait their George's fishing fleet, and also to their city markets.

15. After the Magdalen spring fishing is over the Americans often go up to Anticsti and fish and seine herring there.

16. The Americans, also, both at the Magdalens and at Cape Breton, land and seine for bait for their cod fishing, and they even go into the rivers and catch gaspereaux for bait.

17. Taking our coast from Mimnigash to Nail Pond, in this county, I believe that the fishing outfit has increased five or six hundred per cent. in the last ten years; that is, in the number of boats and their cost. I would estimate the number of boats between Mimnigash and North Cape at from one hundred and fifty to two hundred; and from North Cape to Alberton I should estimate the increase during the last ten years at from three to four hundred per cent. I would reckon the number of boats in that distance at from one hundred and fifty to two hundred; there must be fully that many. I should say that the whole number of all these boats take crews of three men each on board of them, and that they furnish employment to one man for each boat on shore.

18. Our fishing at this end of the island is only in its infancy; our men are only getting skilled and trained to it.

19. The reasons for the increase in the number of boats are that men of capital and experience, seeing the fishing to be a fruitful source of trade, have invested capital, and have encouraged men to build and go into the boat-fishing.

20. I consider that after this we will have a distinct fishing class of people, that is when the lands are all taken up, which they are now. At present, and in the past, the men fished when they had time for farming. Now, we have men who depend entirely on the fishing, and these secure large quantities of fish, and their number is increasing fast. I consider that we are now at the beginning of a new departure in trade in this country owing to the fishing. In my experience, I depend upon men who depend entirely on the fishing to get fully three times as many fish as those who look partly to other means of support.

21. With regard to the value of our fisheries, I consider them very valuable. We have herring in early spring; immediately after, and during the herring-fishing, we have codfish. The herring fishing lasts from about the 1st of May to the 5th of June. At times there are large quantities of herring on our coast, and they are about the same quality of fish as the Magdalen Island herring. They never yet have been fished as an article of export, but only as mackerel-bait and for home consumption. Very much larger quantities can be generally procured than are required for those purposes.

22. After the cod-fishing we have fish consisting of mackerel and ling, or hake, right through till late in the fall, till about the beginning of November. So far as I know, from actual experience, this part of this island is one of the choice spots for fishing in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Large numbers of the Nova Scotian shore fishermen come right round here to fish. We never have had a complete failure of fish, although in blustery years we catch less than in other years. The regular fishermen, even in the worst years, have always made fair wages.

23. I should put the average catch of mackerel per boat, for all boats engaged in fishing, at about fifty barrels, and for those engaged in codfishing, taking one year with another, for ten years past, about fifty quintals of codfish and hake. Until late years our boats and outfits have been of a very rude kind, not to be compared to that of the Nova Scotiaus or Americans, and that is one reason I think our fishery is only in its infancy.

24. I look upon our lobster-fishing here as of very great, in fact of

inestimable, value. We have an inexhaustible supply of them. This branch of the fishing might be pursued here with very great advantage. A great advantage in this fishery would be the abundance of fish offal which we have for bait, and which is now going to waste.

25. Hake sounds here are a very valuable article in our fishing. They are procured from the hake or ling. Each quintal of 280 pounds of ling will give on an average about 3 pounds of sounds. Within the last ten years the price of these has ranged all the way from 25 cents to $1.50 a pound, making an average value of 75 cents, in gold, a pound. The value of the sounds is, on an average, worth from 75 to 100 per cent. more than the fish from which they are taken, and the sounds are, therefore, a very important consideration in fishing.

26. With improved winter-communication, large quantities of trout, smelt, and some bass might be exported. The value of these fisheries, if the means of trade were opened up, would be greatly enhanced, and would be well worth going into.

27. We have had one or two instances in this part of the island of men attempting the salmon, and they have proved that it may be made a success in fishing. Our people do not yet know the value of this fishery, which I believe will become very valuable.

28. Our men are now becoming more and more acquainted with the babits of the fish and with the general laws by which their movements are governed, aud with their improved knowledge of the habits of the fish and increased facilities for taking them they are now much more able to get catches.

A. F. LARKIN. Sworn to at Frog, or Skinner's Pond, in Prince County, Prince Edward Island, this 28th day of June, A. D. 1877, before me. JOSEPH MACGILVRAY, J. P. for Prince County.

No. 6.

I, JAMES CONROY, of Kildare, lot or township No. 3, in Prince Edward Island, farmer and fisherman, make oath and say:

1. I have been engaged in fishing and farming for over twelve years. I have fished all the time, except one summer, in boats.

2. The number of boats fishing off this part of the shore is increasing. The number has more than trebled in the last ten years. The boats are a great deal better now than they were formerly. They are in better shape every way-more suited to the purpose. There are $10 spent in the business along this shore now to the $1 spent ten years ago.

3. The boats around about here are small, as the people do not make a specialty of the business, but farm as well. The boats carry about three bands each.

4. All the mackerel caught along here are caught within three miles of the shore. The greater part are caught within a mile and a half and one mile of the shore. Near the shore is by far the best fishing ground. In the spring and fall the cod-fish are caught close to the shore. In the summer they are farther off. The mackerel is the principal and most valuable part of the fishery.

5. When an American fleet comes in they certainly do injury to the boat fishing. The more vessels that come down, the more damage is done to the fishing. I bave seen a fleet of some hundred Americans fishing off this shore within a couple of miles.

6. The year the cutters were about the Americans were pretty well kept off. It is a great inconvenience to them to be kept out of the shore fishing. With an off-shore wind they often throw over bait and draw the mackerel off. Certainly the shores around here are a benefit to the Americans.

7. The mackerel fishing begins about the first of July, and lasts till the end of September, any way.

8. As a general thing, people here with nets can get as many herring as they want; they are used for bait. Every boat uses on an average seven or eight barrels for the season, that is, the small boats along here, The large ones use much more.

JAMES CONROY.

Sworn to at Kildare, in Prince County, in Prince Edward Island, this 27th day of June, A. D. 1877, before me.

JOSEPH MACGILVRAY,
J. P. for Prince County, Prince Edward Island.

No. 7.

I, JAMES F. WHITE, of Alberton, in Prince County, in Prince Edward Island, merchant, make oath and say:

1. That I have been engaged in the fishing business for the last fifteen years as the owner of boats and vessels. I know the fishing grounds well, and I know where both boats and schooners fish, and the best fishing grounds. At the present time I have one schooner and ten boats, carrying about fifty men, engaged in fishing.

2. That about forty boats are fishing out of Cascumpec Harbor during the present year. These forty boats are manned by about one hundred and fifty men. The average yearly catch of each boat is about seventyfive barrels of mackerel, fifty quintals of codfish, and fifty quintals of hake. Herring are caught along the shore, and are used for bait. Each fishing stage, in an average year, uses about three hundred barrels of herring for bait.

3. The American fleet generally enters the bay during the month of June or the beginning of July. The mackerel are then generally on shore. The Americans are often afraid to follow the mackerel as close to the shore as the fish come, owing to the water being too shoal, close to the shore, for their vessels, and then they launch their boats and follow the mackerel inshore in them.

4. The mackerel generally move off shore about the first of October. The off-shore catch is very uncertain, owing to the weather in the fall being often bad.

5. During the summer months the Americans invariably fish within three miles of the shore, and do very much damage to our boat-fishing. They come in among our boats and draw off the mackerel. For the past ten years I think the average number of American vessels would be two hundred and fifty, and they average five hundred barrels each year. The year before last (1875) some vessels took eleven hundred barrels out of the bay in three trips. Last year the mackerel were scarce, and the highest catch about three hundred and fifty barrels. I never knew the mackerel so scarce in the bay as they were last year. This year (1877) the prospects are good, the mackerel plenty; the bay appears to be full of them.

6. When the cutters were about, watching the fishing grounds, the American fleet would go out of the harbor, send one of their number to

keep watch off Kildare Cape, while the balance of the fleet would fish inshore, and the watching vessel would signal if there was any sign of the cutters. Whenever such signal was given, they would stop fishing and stand out to sea. When the cutter was gone they would come in again. I have seen this done myself.

7. Fully three-quarters of the schooners' catch is taken within three miles of the shore, and I may say the whole of the boats' catch.

8. The number of boats fishing here has trebled in the last three years. The reason of this increase is that other business is depressed, and fishermen from the United States, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia are coming here to settle, attracted by the good fishing, so that we are now able to get crews to man our boats, which formerly we were unable to do. Another reason is that the year 1875 was a very good year, and owing to the successful prosecution of the fishing that year people's attention was turned to the business, and they were incited to go into it.

9. The boat-fishers all look upon the arrival of the American fleet as the end of the good fishing. Too much bait is thrown from the vessels, and the boats have to give way to the vessels. The shore fishermen always look upon the arrival of the fleet to fish among them as a great loss and injury to them.

10. Generally there are more than enough herring caught along the shore for bait; this year, however, the herring fishery was a failure.

11. The Americans land here a good deal and transship their fish. This is a very great advantage for them. The advantage is that, when a vessel starts for a trip, she can only fit out for a short time, some five or six weeks, and having the right to transship, they are able to refit. They in this way save about a fortnight each trip, which amounts to an additional trip, for the summer. They can also generally buy their barrels and salt here cheaper than at home. They often come here and buy all their barrels, bringing none from home. I have supplied them myself. The right of transshipment saves them time.

12. The mackerel season is short, lasting, at the outside, from about the middle of June till the middle of October.

13. The mackerel, in spring, come down the Nova Scotian shore, and then strike up the bay to the Magdalen Islands, from there some shoals move toward the bend of this island, and others toward Bay Chaleur, Gaspé, and round there. The Americans are well acquainted with this habit of mackerel and follow them. They have very smart schooners, and follow the fish along the shore, taking their cue, to a great extent, from what they see our boats doing.

14. In average years, the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence are lined with mackerel. It is their home. American skippers of long experience say that they never want to go farther than three miles away from Cascumpec H arbor to catch mackerel.

15. It is a very great advantage for the American cod-fishermen to be allowed to come inshore to get bait, ice, and other requirements.

16. The mackerel are the principal part of our fishery, and when our men go out the mackerel are the principal object they have in view. JAS. F. WHITE. Sworn to at Cascumpec, in Prince County, in Prince Edward Island, this 26th day of June, A. D. 1877, before me.

JOSEPH MACGILVRAY,
J. P. for Prince County.