1046 MISCELLANEOUS. 



Gut of Canso, Americans conduct the Fishery, and their Fishing 

 vessels pass also through the latter, or anchor there, and not only fish, 

 but by using bait, toll the mackerel into deep waters, thereby injuring 

 the profitable Seine Fisheries of Fox Island and Crow Harbor, 

 Arichat, St. Peter's Bay and other stations in the neighborhood of 

 Canso which formerly were the most productive Fisheries of Nova 

 Scotia. They also land on the Magdalen Islands, set nets and sweep 

 seines in the spring of the year, at a time when the Herrings resort to 

 those waters to spawn, thereby destroying the spawn and young fish, 

 and consequently ruining the Fishery. 



The opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown in England is re- 

 quested on the following points. 



1st. Whether the Treaty of 1783 was annulled by the War of 1812, 

 and whether citizens of the United States possess any right of Fishery 

 in the waters of the Lower Provinces other than ceded to them by 

 the convention of 1818, and if so, what right. 2d. Have American 

 citizens the right under that Convention, to enter any of the Bays of 

 this Province to take Fish ; if after they have so entered they prose- 

 cute the Fishery more than three marine miles from the shores of 

 such Bays; or should the prescribed distance of three marine miles 

 be measured from the headlands, at the entrance of such Baj^s, so as 

 to exclude them. 3d. If the distance of three marine miles is to be 

 computed from the indents of the coast of British America, or from 

 the extreme headlands, and what is to be considered a headland. 

 4th Have American vessels, fitted out for a Fishery, a right to pass 

 through the Gut of Canso, which they cannot do without coming 

 within the prescribed limits, or to anchor there or to Fish there ; and 

 is casting bait to lure fish in the track of the vessel fishing, within 

 the meaning of the Convention. 5th Have American citizens a 

 right to land on the Magdalen Islands, and conduct the Fishery from 

 the shores thereof by using nets and seines; or what right of Fishery 

 do they possess on the shores of those Islands and what is meant by 

 the term shore. 6th Have American Fishermen the right to enter 

 the Bays and Harbors of this Province for the purpose of purchas- 

 ing wood or obtaining water, having provided neither of these arti- 

 cles at the commencement of their voyages, in their own countries ; or 

 have they the right of entering such Bays and Harbors in cases of 

 distress, or to purchase wood and obtain water, after the usual stock 

 of those articles for the voyage of such Fishing craft has been 

 exhausted or destroyed. 7th Under existing Treaties, what rights 

 of Fishery are ceded to the citizens of the United States of America, 

 and what reserved for the exclusive enjoyment of British subjects. 



Lord Stanley to Lord Falkland. 



DOWNING STREET, 28th November, 181$. 



MY LORD: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 

 Lordship's Despatch of the llth July last, enclosing copies of two 

 reports made by Committees of the House of Assembly of Nova 

 Scotia, complaining of the encroachments of American citizens on 

 the Fisheries of British North America, and praying the establish- 



