1598 AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



segregate of concessions, from the one side to the other, and Newfound- 

 laiid comes in with the rest. 



leaving, then, the Island of Newfoundland, I come to the question 

 of the value to the citizens of the United States of the concessions 

 as to inshore fisheries in the territorial waters of the Dominion of Can- 

 ada that is, within three miles of the shore for the five annual sea- 

 sons past, and for seven years to come. In the first place, there is the 

 right conceded to our fishermen to laud iu order to cure fish and dry 



Dots to land on unoccupied places, where they do not interfere with 



private property, nor with British fishermen exercising the same rights. 

 JM one of the oldest law reports, Popham's, an ancient sage of the law, 

 Mr. Justice Doddridge remarks: "Fishermen, by the law of nations, 

 may dry their nets on the laud of any man." Without asserting that as 

 a correct rule of law, I think 1 may safely assert that it has been the 

 practice, permitted under the comity of nations from the beginning of 

 human history, and that no nation or people, no kingdom or country, 

 has ever excluded fishermen from lauding on barren and unoccupied 

 shores and rocks to dry their nets and cure their fish. If it was proved 

 that the fishermen of the United States did use privileges of this kind, 

 under the provisions of the Treaty of Washington, to a greater extent 

 than before, I hardly think that you would be able to find a current coiu 

 of the realm sufficiently small in which to estimate compensation for such 

 a concession. But, in point of fact, the thing is not done; there is no 

 evidence that it is done. Ou the contrary, the evidence is that this 

 practice belonged to the primitive usages of a by-gone generation. Seven- 

 ty, sixty, perhaps fifty years ago, when a little fishing vessel left Mas- 

 sachusetts Bay, it would sail to Newfoundland, and after catching a 

 few fish, the skipper would moor his craft near the shore, land in a boat, 

 HIM! dry the fish on the rocks ; and when he had collected a fare of fish, 

 and tilled his vessel, he would either return back home, or quite as fre- 

 quently would sail on a commercial voyage to some foreign country, 

 where he would dispose of the fish and^take in a return cargo. But 

 nothing of that sort has happened within the memory of any living man. 

 It is something wholly disused, of no value whatever. And it must not 

 be said that under this concession we acquire any right to fish from the 

 shore, to haul nets from the shore, or to fish from rocks. Obviously, we 

 do not. I agree entirely with the view of my brother Thomson, as mani- 

 fested in his conversation with Professor Baird on that subject. 



We come, then, to the inshore fishing. What is that ! In the first 



place, there has been some attempt to show inshore halibut-fishing in 



leighborhood of Cape Sable. It is very slight. It is contradicted 



by all our witnesses. No American fisherman can be found who has 



inown of any halibut-fishing within three miles of the shore in that 



it.v ; and our fishermen all say that it is impossible that there should 



it caught in any considerable quantities iu any place where the 



H are so shallow. There is also some evidence that up in the Gulf 



Lawrence there was once a small local halibut fishery, but the 



nee that speaks of its existence there speaks of its discoo- 



years ago. The last instance of a vessel going there to fish 



hat has been made known to us is the one that Mr. Syl- 



1 1 lies about, where a vessel of his strayed up into the- 



HI, itun-il, and was released, prior to the Treaty of Washing- 



the inshore halibut fishery, there has been no name of a ves- 



>ne single instance, when a witness did give the name of 



V; yl Sr M * Vessel that nad tisbed for halibut in the vicinity 

 He. \\ t have an atlidavit from the captain of that schooner, 



I 



