480 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



ica, and that, the American fishermen shall have liberty to dry and 

 cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors and creeks of Nova 

 Scotia, Magdalen Islands and Labrador, so long as the same shall 

 remain unsettled; but so soon as the same or either of them shall be 

 settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure 

 fish at such settlement without previous agreement for that purpose 

 with the inhabitants, proprietors or possessors of that ground." 



These privileges and conditions were in reference to a country 

 of which a considerable portion was then unsettled, likely to be 

 attended with differences of opinion as to what should, in the prog- 

 ress of time, be accounted a settlement from which American fisher- 

 men might be excluded. These differences in fact arose, and by the 

 year 1818 the state of things was so far changed that her Majesty's 

 government thought it necessary in negotiating the convention of 

 that year, entirely to except the province of Nova Scotia from the 

 number of the places which might be frequented by Americans as 

 being in part unsettled, and to provide that the fishermen of the 

 United States should not pursue their occupation within three miles 

 of the shores, bays, creeks and harbors of that and other parts of 

 her Majesty's possessions similarly situated. The privilege reserved 

 to American fishermen by the treaty of 1783, of taking fish in all 

 the waters and drying them on all the unsettled portions of the coast 

 of these possessions was accordingly by the convention of 1818 

 restricted as follows: — 



" The United States hereby renounce forever any liberty hereto- 

 fore enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry, 

 or cure fish on or within three marine miles of any of the coasts, 

 bays, creeks, or harbors of his Britannic Majesty's dominions in 

 America, not included within the above mentioned limits; provided, 

 however, that the American fishermen shall be admitted to enter 

 such bays or harbors for the purpose of sheltering and repairing 

 damages therein, of purchasing wood, and of obtaining water, and 

 for no other purpose whatever." 



The existing doubt as to the construction of the provision arises 

 from the fact that a broad arm of the sea runs up to the northeast 

 between the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. This 

 arm of the sea being commonly called the Bay of Fundy, though 

 not in reality possessing all the characters usually implied by the 

 term " bay," has of late years been claimed by the provincial authori- 

 ties of Nova Scotia to be included among " the coasts, bays, creeks 

 and harbors forbidden to American fishermen." 



An examination of the map is sufficient to show the doubtful 

 nature of this construction. It was notoriously the object of the 

 article of the treaty in question to put an end to the difficulties which 

 had grown out of the operations of the fishermen from the United 

 States along the coasts and upon the shores of the settled portions 

 of the country, and for that purpose to remove their vessels to a 

 distance not exceeding three miles from the same. In estimating 

 this distance, the undersigned admits it to be the intent of the treaty, 

 as it is itself reasonable, to have regard to the general line of the 

 coast; and to consider its bays, creeks and harbors, that is, the inden- 

 tation usually so accounted, as included within that line. But the 

 undersigned cannot admit it to be reasonable, instead of thus fol- 

 lowing the general directions of the coast, to draw a line from the 



