438 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



sea to the bay except through the territorial water of that 

 country, and the inner part of the bay will belong to that 

 country no matter how widely it may expand. The line 

 drawn from shore to shore at the part where, in approach- 

 ing from the open sea, the width first contracts to that 

 mentioned, will take the place of the line of low water, 

 and the littoral sea belonging to the State will be measured 

 outwards from that line to the distance of three miles or 

 more, proper to the State"; (WESTLAKE, Vol. 1, page 187). 

 But the learned author takes care to add : ' ' But although 

 this is the general rule it often meets with an exception 

 in the case of bays which penetrate deep into the land 

 and are called gulfs. Many of these are recognized by 

 immemorial usage as territorial sea of the States into 

 which they penetrate, notwithstanding that their entrance 

 is wider than the general rule for bays would give as a 

 limit for such appropriation.' And he proceeds to quote 

 as examples of this kind the Bay of Conception in New- 

 foundland, which he considers as wholly British, Chesa- 

 peake and Delaware Bays, which belong to the United 

 States, and others. (Ibid, page 188). The Institute of 

 International Law, in its Annual Meeting of 1894, recom- 

 mended a marginal belt of six miles for the general line 

 of the coast and as a consequence established that for 

 bays the line should be drawn up across at the nearest 

 portion of the entrance toward the sea where the distance 

 between the two sides do not exceed twelve miles. But 

 the learned association very wisely added a proviso to the 

 effect, 'that bays should be so considered and measured 

 unless a continuous and established usage has sanctioned 

 a greater breadth.' Many great authorities are agreed 

 as to that. Counsel for the United States proclaimed the 

 right to the exclusive jurisdiction of certain bays, no 

 matter what the width of their entrance should be, when 

 the littoral nation has asserted its right to take it into 



