612 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



ing coast of France. The opportunity was taken at the 

 same time " to define and regulate the limits within which 

 the general right of fishery on all parts of the coasts of the 

 two countries shall be exclusively reserved to the subjects 

 of Great Britain and of France respectively," and a conven- 

 tion was concluded at Paris in 1839 defining these rights. 1 

 By its articles a very considerable stretch of water containing 

 oyster-beds, in the Bay of Granville on the French coast, 

 between Cape Carteret and Point Meinga, south - east of 

 Jersey, and extending far beyond the three-mile limit, was 

 reserved exclusively for French fishermen, the boundaries 

 being minutely defined and laid down on a chart annexed 

 to the convention ; and British fishermen were prohibited 

 from carrying on any kind of fishing, even for floating fish, 

 within this area. The bay thus appropriated is over seven- 

 teen miles in breadth, and the closing line passes in some 

 places about fourteen miles from the shore. 2 This concession 

 to France was a recognition of the principle that fisheries 

 of this nature that is, for objects which are attached to or 

 stationary on the bottom require special treatment. 



The article defining the general fishery limit on the coasts of 

 the two countries was as follows : 



" ARTICLE IX. The subjects of Her Britannic Majesty shall enjoy 

 the exclusive right of fishery within the distance of three miles from 

 low-water mark, along the whole extent of the coasts of the British 

 Islands ; and the subjects of the King of the French shall enjoy 

 the exclusive right of fishery within the distance of three miles 

 from low-water mark, along the whole extent of the coasts of 

 France ; it being understood that upon that part of the coast of 

 France which lies between Cape Carteret and Point Meinga, French 

 subjects shall enjoy the exclusive right of all kinds of fishery within 



1 Convention between Her Majesty and the King of the French, defining and 

 regulating the Limits of the Exclusive Right of the Oyster and other Fishery on the 

 Coasts of Great Britain and of France. Signed at Paris, August 2, 1839. 



2 The line of closure, as will be seen from fig. 16, was not a single straight line, 

 as usual, but a series of lines determined by landmarks. The area between this 

 series and the three-mile limit, from which British fishermen were excluded, meas- 

 ures a little over 100 square (geographical) miles. On the other hand, all of the 

 closing line north of 49 3' (and thus the greater part of it) is, curiously, u-ithin the 

 three-mile zone ; the area outside this line to the three-mile line is about 23 square 

 miles. 



