ABGUMENT OP SAMUEL J. ELDER. 1559 



So that there is an admission that if the word " coast " stood alone, 

 and it was to be understood in its natural meaning, it included bays, 

 harbours, and creeks. 



And, by the way, Sir Robert Bond is very nearly answering his 

 own contention, because he refers to this very question of the singular 

 and plural being used. 



The British Case, upon this point, at p. 124, says : 



" Possibly, if the word ' coast ' had been used alone, without any 

 such context as is to be found in this treaty, it might have been held 

 to include the indentations of the coast. But the language under 

 examination makes a clear distinction between 'coasts "on the one 

 hand, and ' bays, harbours, and creaks,' on the other, as the treaty of 

 1783 had already done, and as the treaties of 1854 and 1871 subse- 

 quently did." 



So that, we find an agreement that, prima facie, the word " coast " 

 includes indentations, bays, harbours, and creeks. We have put 

 into our printed Argument, extending from pp. 237 to 241, illus- 

 trations of the use of the word "coast" in treaties, in legislative 

 acts, in memorials, in addresses, in histories, and in orders and regu- 

 lations in which its clear meaning is brought out. I shall not burden 

 the Court by going through them, but I would ask the attention of 

 the Court to them. I would refer the Tribunal to the act of the 30th 

 March, 1809, United States Counter-Case Appendix, p. 67: 



"An Act for establishing Courts of Judicature in the Island of 

 Newfoundland and the Islands adjacent; and for reannexing Part of 

 the Coast of Labrador and the Islands lying on the said Coast to the 

 Government of Newfoundland." 



And so on through a very large number of illustrations, the use 

 of the word " coast " plainly and palpably including the sinuosities 

 of the coast. Even some of the Acts of the Assembly of Newfound- 

 land, prohibiting the use of one sort or means of fishing and another, 

 use the word " coast." Of course, it meant to include fishing in the 

 bays. We have also given the definition of the word " coast " in, I 

 think, every dictionary that was extant in 1818, and these appear in 

 a foot-note to the United States Argument, p. 241. There is a 

 reference also to the Scotch Herring Fisheries Act, 1867, which 

 says : 



944 " The coasts of Scotland shall mean and include all ~bays, 

 estuaines, arms of the sea and all tidal waters within the dis- 

 tance of three miles from the mainland or adjacent islands." 



The word, coming from the French, means the edge, or margin of 

 the land where it comes in contact with the sea, and is used contrari- 

 wise of the sea as it comes in contact with the land and it marks the 

 exact edge whether it is scalloped or straight. 



