2182 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



this term " coast" was used distributively : " On or within ',} marine 

 miles of any of the coasts " looking at it as a fisherman would look 

 at it, going along the coast, one coast on the starboard and another 

 to port. And they answer to the requirement which was fundamen- 

 tal in this whole business, that they should draw a line that a iisher- 

 man could find. I do not care so much whether you can find a line 

 with the help of all of these gentlemen here. The treaty was not 

 made for you and me. It was not made for gentlemen to find a line 

 by poring over a chart. It was made for fishermen, going out on to 

 the sea with their small boats, to navigate in fair whether and in storm, 

 by daylight and in the dark, in clear weather and in fog; and when 

 the treaty makers were laying down a line, they were bound to lay 

 down a line, and we are bound to assume that they were laying down 

 a line that a fisherman could find. What fisherman could find a line 

 3 miles outside of a line 60 miles in length drawn from Grand 

 Manan to the headland here (indicating on the map) not clear across 

 the bay; that would be more than 100 miles; but a line from the 

 headland of Nova Scotia to the nearest point of British land on the 

 other side of the Grand Menan, or Mur Ledge, which I think sticks 

 up out of the water, is a full 60 miles in length. What fisherman 

 could, on peril of the seizure and forfeiture of his vessel, be expected 

 to find that line. It would be wholly impracticable. That is 

 1319 not the method by which international law proceeds to con- 

 strue instruments. There is a basis for that talk in these let- 

 ters here, that old idea about being able to see from headland to 

 headland, taking in what comes within a line of sight. It is because 

 the rules of international law are made, and treaties are construed 

 for the practical use of mankind. You do not give a book on naviga- 

 tion to an unlettered fisherman who is to sail along the coa^t and 

 find his way to the place where he earns his daily bread. You give 

 him a rule of thumb; you give him something he can see and guard 

 himself by. And the conclusion to which we have corne here, upon 

 these plain declarations of Great Britain as to what the limits of her 

 territorial sovereignty, of her maritime jurisdiction were, is in 

 agreement with the requirements of the making of this treaty to 

 lay down a line that fishermen shall not transgress, that it is possible 

 for a fisherman to find. 



THE PRESIDENT: If you please, Mr. Senator Root, is the word 

 "any" in the renunciatory clause in no connection with the w-ord 

 " bays," or is it to be considered as having relation to the word 

 "bays"?- 



" On or within three marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, 

 creeks or harbours." 



SENATOR ROOT: I should think that that qualified the whole. 

 THE PRESIDENT : The whole ? 



