MODERN PRACTICE 659 



of a fortified port they are prohibited from taking soundings, 

 practising with firearms, &c. ; other regulations forbid vessels 

 laden with goods which form the object of a monopoly of the 

 state from approaching within gunshot. By a decree of 23rd 

 August 1846, and a circular of 28th April 1849, it was declared 

 that the expression "range of guns" in these ordinances was 

 equivalent to three marine miles of sixty to a degree. The 

 customs regulations operate within the same limit, but the 

 manifest can be demanded within a farther distance of four 

 marine miles. 1 With respect to the right of fishing, the regu- 

 lations are somewhat complex. The boundary of exclusive 

 fishing is fixed at three miles, 2 but inasmuch as the fisheries 

 in the Adriatic are carried on almost only by Austrian and 

 Italian subjects, it was found convenient to arrange by treaty 

 for the fishermen of either country to fish within the territorial 

 waters of the other, except within a distance of one marine 

 mile from the shore, and subject to certain restrictions regard- 

 ing the fisheries for corals and sponges, and the observance of 

 the local regulations. 3 This mutual arrangement with regard 

 to the right of fishery was renewed and continued in a later 

 treaty of llth February 1906. 



The fishings within one marine mile of the shore are re- 

 served to the inhabitants of the commune to which the coast 

 appertains ; but in certain specified circumstances fishermen 

 from other places may be allowed to fish within this communal 

 zone. The use of drag-nets and trawl-nets is prohibited in all 

 places where the depth is under eight metres ; within the first 

 maritime or communal zone at certain seasons, irrespective of 

 depth, and altogether within five miles of the coast when em- 

 ployed from steamers. Owing to the absence of tides, the 

 shoreward limit is not measured from a low-water mark, but 

 from a line, fixed by local authorities, where the water ceases 

 to be constantly brackish. 4 



1 Strisower, Anmiaire de V Institut de Droit International. 1894. 



2 Verordnung cler Ministerien des Haudels und des Ackerbaues, im Einverneh- 

 men mit dem Ministerium des Innern, vom 5 December 1884, betreflfend die 

 Seefischerei, s. 3. 



3 Handels- und Schiffahrtsvertrag vom 27 Dec. 1878, zwischen Oesterreich- 

 Ungarn und Italien. Schlussprotokoll ad Art. xvii., xviii. ; Marchesetti, La pcsca 

 lungo le coste orientali dell' Adria. Trieste, 1882. 



* Vorschriften tiber die See - Fischerei giltig in Oesterreich - Ungarn seit 12 

 December 1884. 



