QUESTION FIVE. 77 



width between the headlands of the Bay of Chaleurs is 16, and not 

 merely 6, miles. And Mr. Lyman must be taken as having expressed 

 not his own opinion simply, but the general United States convic- 

 tion. For he does not refer to the existence of any contrary inter- 

 pretation. He combats no other theory. He merely states that 

 which to him, and his contemporaries, appeared to be an indisputable 

 fact. 



MEASUREMENT FROM SHORES OF BAY, 1839. 



1839. At this time is first met the suggestion that the 3 miles of 

 the treaty must run from the shore of the bays, and not from the 

 bay itself. This construction makes nonsense of the article which 

 provided that the United States renounced the liberty theretofore 

 enjoyed or claimed within 3 marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, 

 creeks, or harbours. It is obvious that the 3 marine miles must be 

 measured not from the shores, but from the limits of the bay. 



To Lord Falkland, Governor of Nova Scotia, this idea was, in 

 1841, quite new. Combating it, in a despatch (8th May) to Lord 

 John Kussell (Colonial Secretary), Lord Falkland quoted the lan- 

 guage of the treaty and said (App., p. 128) : 



Indeed, the claim now set up, there is reason to believe, is new, as. 

 in point of practice, the American fishermen when questioned for 

 being within the waters of the province, have uniformly resorted to 

 the pretexts afforded by the convention, viz., the want of shelter, 

 repairs or wood and water, and never, it is believed, have asserted the 

 right to fish within the bays or harbours of the coast. 



Although Lord Falkland had not heard of the idea until 1841, it 

 had evidently been broached some few years before. In 1836, Nova 



Scotia had succeeded in inducing the British Government to 

 88 exert greater activity in patrolling the fisheries ; many seizures 



had been made; the question had become one of serious con- 

 sideration by the United States; and, in 1839, Lieutenant-Com- 

 manding Paine was sent to inspect the situation. In his report (29th 

 December, 1839), he said (App., p. 121) : 



In my late cruise on the coasts of Her Britannic Majesty's prov- 

 inces, I found the convention of 1818, on the subject of fisheries, so 

 variously construed, that I deemed it proper to address the Navy 

 Department on the subject the letters to which I alluded in conver- 

 sation with you. 



And he mentioned as one of " the questions on which dispute may 

 arise " : 



The meaning of the word " bay," in the convention of 1818, where 

 the Americans relinquished the rights before claimed or exercised, 

 of fishing in or upon any of the coasts, bays, &c., of Her Britannic 

 Majesty's provinces not before described, nearer than three miles. 



The authorities of Nova Scotia seem to claim a right to exclude 

 Americans from all bays, including those large seas such as the Bay 

 of Fundy and the Bay of Chaleurs; and also to draw a line from 



