588 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



taken place as to the precise meaning of these words. It is to 

 be noted that much farther seawards than the place in question 

 the width of the Channel is less than ten geographical miles. 

 On the usual rule for bays (as laid down in the fishery 

 conventions), the ten-mile base-line would pass between Nash 

 Point in Glamorgan and Hurtstone Point, the headland east 

 of Porlock in Somerset, and the closing line would be three 

 miles west of this, or about twenty geographical miles from 

 Penarth Roads. The six-mile limit, from land to land, is, how- 

 ever, about twenty-seven miles farther east, between the coast 

 near Goldcliff, in Monmouth, and that near Walton Castle, 

 Somerset. But about midway between these two limits (and 

 seawards of Penarth Roads) there is a part where the three- 

 mile zone around the island, Steepholm, joins that of the coast 

 on either side, and though eastwards of this there are small 

 areas beyond the distance of three miles from shore, the fact 

 that the territorial waters are continuous from side to side 

 at this place probably confers territoriality on all the waters 

 inside, though that is a point which has not apparently been 

 decided. A line drawn from the western boundary of Somerset 

 (and in that case not from a headland) to Worms Head, the 

 most western part of Glamorgan, measures about thirty 

 geographical miles, and it is a markedly oblique line. What 

 is true of one county ought to be true of another, and a much 

 more natural line would be one of about twenty-three geo- 

 graphical miles between Morte Point in Devon and Worms 

 Head in Glamorgan; or one still farther seawards between 

 Hartland Point in Devon and St Goven's Head in Pembroke, 

 which are about thirty-eight geographical miles apart; but 

 under common law the range of vision has to be taken into 

 account. It may be added that the whole of the Bristol 

 Channel within a line from Land's End to Milford was one 

 of the "King's Chambers" (see p. 122), the closing line being 

 nearly one hundred miles long ; and that Continental publicists 

 have referred to it, probably from this circumstance, as being 

 within British jurisdiction. 1 



Another case of the kind decided in a British court con- 

 cerned Conception Bay in Newfoundland, which is rather more 



1 Bell, Crovm, Cases Jteserved, 72. See Hall, Internal. Law, 5th edit., p. 156 ; 

 Westlake, Internal, Law, i. 118. 



