AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 3383 



British waters, in either of those cases specified in the statutes the for- 

 feiture attaches. 



I think the words " preparing to fish " were introduced for the pur- 

 pose of preventing the escape of a foreign vessel which, though with 

 intent of illegal fishing in British waters, had not taken fish or engaged 

 in fishing by setting nets and lines, but was seized in the very act of 

 putting out her lines, nets, etc., into the water, and so preparing to 

 fish. Without these a vessel so situated would escape seizure, inasmuch 

 as the crew had neither caught fish nor been found fishing. 



Taking this view of the Statutes, I am of the opinion that the facts 

 disclosed by the affidavits do not furnish legal grounds for the seizure 

 of the American schooner White Fawn, by Captain Betts, the com- 

 mander of the Dominion vessel Water IAly, and do not make out aprima 

 facie case for condemnation in this Court, of the schooner, her tackle, 

 &c., and cargo. 



I may add that as the construction I have put upon the Statute differs 

 from that adopted by the Crown Officers of the Dominion, it is satis- 

 factory to know that the judgment of the Supreme Court may be 

 obtained by information, filed there, as the Imperial Act 59> George III., 

 Cap. 38, gave concurrent jurisdiction to that Court in cases of this 

 nature. 



No. 2. 



[Extract from the Halifax Daily Reporter and Times, Dec. 7, 1870.] 

 In the Vice Admiralty Court at Halifax. 



The "Wampatuck." Case No. 254. Sir William Young, Judge. 6Ui Z>c., 



1870. 



This is an American fishing vessel of 46 tons burthen, owned at Ply- 

 mouth, in the State of Massachusetts, and sailing under a fishing license, 

 issued by the Collector there on the 25th of April last. On the 27th of 

 June she was seized by Capt. Tory, of the Dominion cutter Ida E., 

 for a violation of the Dominion Fishery Acts of 1808 and 1870, and her 

 nationality and character appear from her enrolment and other papers 

 delivered up by her master, and on file in this Court. A monition hav- 

 ing issued in the usual form on the 27th of July, a libel was filed on the 

 10th of August, and acclaim having been put in by the owners with a 

 bond for costs, as required by the Act, they filed their responsive alle- 

 gation on the 18th of August. The fish and salt on board at the time 

 of seizure being perishable, were sold under an order of the Court, and 

 the proceeds, with the vessel herself, remain subject to its decree. The 

 evidence was completed early iu September, but the case, being the first 

 of the several fishing cases, that has been tried, was not brought before 

 the Court for a hearing till the 26th nit., when it was fully argued, and 

 stands now for judgment. Although it presents few or none of the nicer 

 and more perplexing questions that will arise in the other cases, now also 

 ripe for a hearing, it will be regarded with the deepest interest by the 

 community and the profession, and on that account demands a more 

 cautious arid thorough examination than it might require simply on its 

 own merits. 



"An attempt was made at the argument to import into it wider and 

 more comprehensive inquiries than properly belong to it. I am here to 



