368 APPENDIX TO BEITISH CASE. 



rivers," from a common possession. Ought we by construing the 

 terms of the Treaty most strongly against the nation where the river 

 in dispute may happen to be to, "wrest their words to a contrary 

 meaning ? " I think not. 



Mr. Andrews, for many years the United States Consul in New 

 Brunswick and in Canada, a gentleman whose great researches and 

 untiring energies were materially instrumental in bringing about 

 this Treaty, and to whom the British Colonies are much indebted 

 for the benefits they are now deriving, and may yet derive, from its 

 adoption, thus speaks of the Miramichi, in his Report to his Govern- 

 ment, in 1852 : 



The extensive harbour of Miramichi is formed by the estuary of the beauti- 

 ful river of that name, which is two hundred and twenty miles in length. At 

 its entrance into the Gulf, this river is nine miles in width. 



There is a bar at the entrance to the Miramichi, but the river is of such 

 great size, and pours forth such a volume of water, that the bar offers no im- 

 pediment to navigation, there being sufficient depth of water en it, at all times, 

 for ships of six and seven hundred tons, or even more. The tide flows nearly 

 forty miles up the MiramicLii, from the Gulf. The river is navigable for vessels 

 of the largest class full thirty miles of that distance, there being from five to 

 eight fathoms of water in the channel ; but schooners, and small craft, can pro- 

 ceed nearly to the head of the tide. Owing to the ize and depth of the Mira- 

 michi, ships can load along its banks for miles. 



219 In Brookes' Gazetteer, an American work of authority, the 

 width of the Potomac, at its entrance into the Chesapeake, is 

 given as seven and a half miles. 



In the same work, the mouth of the Amazon, is given at " one 

 hundred and fifty-nine miles broad." 



In Harper's Gazetier, (edition of 1855), the width of the Severn, 

 at its junction with the British Channel, is given at ten miles across. 

 That of the Humber, at its mouth, at six or seven miles ; and that of 

 the Thames, at its junction with the North Sea, at the Nore, between 

 the Isle of Sheppey and Foulness Point, or between Sheerness and 

 Southend, at fifteen miles across. And the St. Lawrence, in two 

 different places, in the same work, is described as entering " the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, at Gaspe Point, by a mouth one hundred miles 

 wide." And also, " that at its mouth, the Gulf from Cape Rosier to 

 Mungan Settlement, in Labrador, is one hundred and five miles in 

 length." 



Thus, width is no objection. The real entrance to the Miramichi 

 is, however, but one and a half miles wide. Captain Bayfield may, 

 apparently, be cited by both Commissioners as authority. He says, 

 pages 30, 31, and 32 : 



Miramichi Bay is nearly fourteen miles wide from the sand-bars off Point 

 Blackland to Point Escumenac beacon, and six and a half miles deep, from 

 that line across its mouth, to the main entrance of the Miramichi between 

 Portage and Fox Islands. The bay is formed by a semi-circular range of low, 

 sandy islands, between which there are three small passages, and one main, 

 or ship channel, leading into the inner bay, or estuary, of the Miramichi. The 

 Negowac Gully, between the sand-bar of the same name, and a small one to 

 the south-west, is 280 fathoms wide, and three fathoms deep; but a sandy 

 bar of the usual mutable character, lies off it, nearly a mile to the S.S.E., and 

 had about nine feet over it at low water at the time of our survey. Within 

 the gully, a very narrow channel, only fit for boats, or very small craft, leads 

 westward, up the inner bay. The shoal water extends one and a quarter miles 

 off this gully, but there is excellent warning by the lead here, and everywhere 

 in this bay, as will be seen by the chart. Shoals, nearly dry at low water, 

 extend from the- Negowac Gully to Portage Island, a distance of one and a 



