502 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



American fishermen upon the most shadowy pretexts, and 

 otherwise vexatiously harassed them, sometimes confiscat- 

 ing their vessels upon the merest suspicion of offence. 

 While these burdensome regulations were unnecessarily 

 severe, and perhaps maliciously enforced, it is more than 

 probable that American fishermen were not always guiltless 

 of the offences charged to their account. 



A new form of fishery was at that period rapidly develop- 

 ing which brought into Canadian waters conditions entirely 

 novel, and which, not having been anticipated by those who 

 framed the convention of 1818, were not provided for in that 

 instrument. Mackerel had appeared in vast quantities, and 

 with them, in close pursuit, a large fleet of American schoon- 

 ers. The modus operandi of the mackerel fishery is entirely 

 different from that of the cod fishery. The latter, even 

 at that day, was carried on for the most part on the 

 Banks, or in localities generally well removed from the 

 debatable waters of British sovereignty. The men who 

 confined themselves to cod fishing had less occasion to seek 

 shore stations, either for bait or shelter. The mackerel fish- 

 ery, on the other hand, constantly lured its followers within 

 the three-mile limit of the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 

 shores, for it is the habit of these fish to hover about the 

 shallower reaches of the sea near land. Large quantities of 

 bait were cast upon the waters to tempt the fish within range; 

 this process, of course, necessitated frequent landing at 

 Canadian ports to procure fresh bait supplies ; besides this, 

 the nets employed in taking mackerel demanded for their 

 proper preservation occasional drying upon shore. Now 

 neither of these acts fell within the list of privileges guar- 

 anteed to American fishermen in Nova Scotia or New Bruns- 

 wick by the treaty of 1818. As American fishermen were 

 perhaps not overconscientious in these matters, disputes 

 between them and the Canadians grew more and more fre- 

 quent, and the situation soon became painfully acute. Num- 

 bers of New England vessels were held on charges of " fishing 

 within the prescribed limits " ; " hovering within shore dur- 

 ing calm weather without ostensible cause, having on board 



