1084 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



discern between shore and shore, is, or at least may ~be, within the 

 body of the county, and therefore within the jurisdiction of the 

 sheriff or coroner ; " 



And for this he cites Fitzherbert's Abridgement, and other au- 

 thorities. 

 Reading again from p. 300 of the report : 



" This leads me to consider what is the proper boundary of counties 

 bordering on the sea coast, according to the established course of the 

 common law ; "- 



Mr. Justice Story is here discussing what Mr. Jefferson undertook 

 to express an opinion upon, and is stating what the law really was 

 at the time of this decision, which was in 1829, and what the rule of 

 common law had been in the United States previous to that time 



u for to that I shall feel myself bound to conform on the present oc- 

 casion, whatever might have been my doubts, if I were called to de- 

 cide upon original principles. The general rule, as it is often laid 

 down in the books, is, that such parts of rivers, arms, and creeks of 

 the sea are deemed to be within the bodies of counties, where persons 

 can see from one side to the other. Lord Hale uses more guarded 

 language, and says, in the passage already cited, that the arm or 

 branch of the sea, which lies within the fauces terrce, where a man 

 may reasonably discern between shore and shore is, or at least may be, 

 within the body of a county. Hawkins (PI. Cr. b. 2, ch. 9, par. 14) 

 has expressed the rule in its true sense, and confines it to such parts 

 of the sea, where a man standing on the one side may see what is 

 done on the other." 



This does not mean that arms of the sea, across which one can 



look and ascertain whether there is a lighthouse there, are a 



653 part of the adjoining county, but does mean that the true rule 



was, that these bodies of water which were deemed to be within 



the body of a county were confined to such parts of the sea as were so 



narrow that one standing on the one side may see what is done on 



the other. 



Continuing the reading of the decision : 



" and this is precisely the doctrine, which is laid down by Stanton, J., 

 in the passage in Fitz. Abridg. Corone 399; 8 Edw. 2; on which 

 Lord Coke and the common lawyers have laid so much stress as 

 furnishing conclusive authority in their favor. It is there said, 'it 

 is no part of the sea, where one may see what is done on the one part 

 of the water, and the other, as to see from one land to the other.' 

 And Mr. East, in his Treatise on Common Law, (2 East, P. C. ch. 

 17, para. 10, p. 804) manifestly considers this as the better opinion." 



JUDGE GRAY: Of course, Mr. Warren, if the distance is to be de- 

 cided by the ability of a man of average sight to discern from one 

 shore what is being done on the other shore the distance would have 

 to be a good deal less than 6 miles. 



