26 THE FREDERICK GERRING, JR. 



Admiralty District of the Exchequer Court of Canada at Halifax, 

 Nova Scotia; and the Frederick Gerring, Jr., and her cargo, tackle, 

 rigging, apparel, furniture and stores were arrested under warrant 

 issued in the action. 



The cause was tried before the Honorable James McDonald, 

 Local Judge of said Admiralty District on the 5th day of August, 

 1896, and a decree was made by said Local Judge on the 28th day 

 of August, 1896, forfeiting the ship and her cargo, tackle, rig- 

 ging, apparel, furniture and stores. From this decree the present 

 appeal is brought bj^ the owner of the Frederick Gerring, Jr., her 

 cargo, etc., to the Supreme Court of Canada. 



The facts will be found stated in the judgment of the learned 

 Local Judge printed in the case on appeal herein at pages 55 to 57. 

 It is not questioned that the Frederick Gerring, Jr., was an American 

 fishing vessel, holding no Canadian license, and that she was engaged 

 in bailing fish from her seine alongside her on the 25th day of May, 

 1896. 



In the Court below there were only two questions raised by the 

 present appellants; first, that the place where the Frederick Gerring, 

 Jr., was found taking fish out of her seine is not within three marine 

 miles of the coast of Canada; and second, that the act of taking 

 fish out of a seine within territorial waters is not fishing within 

 such waters. 



It is alleged on behalf of the Crown that the place where the 

 Frederick Gerring, Jr., was found bailing fish out of her seine was 

 within three miles of Gull Ledge, an Island on the Eastern shore 

 of Nova Scotia, near Liscomb in Guysborough County. It was 

 not questioned in the Court below that Gull Ledge is part of the 

 coast of Canada and, from the character of the island no such ques- 

 tion can arise. See The Anna 5, Charles Robertson, page 373, 

 as to the principles governing the construction of the term "coast.' 

 This case is accepted as authoritative by all the American writers' 

 on International law. It is also not questioned that the place 

 where the Gerring was found bailing fish out of her seine was 

 without the limits in which the inhabitants of the United States 

 are permitted to take fish by the Treaty of 1818. 



I. 



The question which the appellants raise under the fi ^\ ground 

 of defence urged before the Court below, and above referred to, 

 is a pure question of fact, viz., whether the place where the Frederick 



