1909.] ATLANTIC FISHERIES QUESTION. 329 



waters that are not known as territorial. But the Hberty granted 

 to American fishermen to fish within British territorial waters by 

 the Treaty of 1783 is much curtailed by the convention of 1818. 

 The former instrument gave to Americans the liberty to fish along 

 the British coasts generally and " to dry and cure fish in any of the 

 unsettled bays, harbors and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands 

 and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled." The 

 convention of 1818 curtailed the liberty of Americans to fish in 

 British territorial waters to the shores of Newfoundland, along its 

 southern coast from Cape Ray to the Rameau Islands and on its 

 western and northern sides from Cape Ray to the Ouirpon Islands ; 

 to the shores of the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence; and to the coast of Labrador from Mount Joly indefinitely 

 to the east and the north. 



On June 14, 1819, the British Parliament passed an act to 

 carry the first article of the convention of 1818, which specified the 

 rights of Americans to take fish in the waters around Newfoundland, 

 into effect. 



Everything on the fishing grounds did not run smoothly. A 

 number of American fishing vessels were seized by the British au- 

 thorities. Correspondence upon the subject between the constituted 

 authorities of the two powers resulted from 1822 to 1826.^^ Then 

 for a decade, comparative quiet seems to have reigned concerning 

 the fishery rights. In 1836, however, the legislature of Nova Scotia 

 began to attempt to prevent American fishing vessels from catching 

 fish in the waters adjoining the shores of Nova Scotia. First it 

 passed a " hovering act," to prevent American fishing vessels from 

 sailing within three miles of the coast; then Nova Scotia sought to 

 exclude American fishermen from all bays, including even the Bay 

 of Fundy, which is over sixty miles wide and nearly a hundred and 

 forty miles long, that are bound by the shores of Nova Scotia.'* 

 That province also attempted to deny to American vessels the right 



"^ Senate Executive Documents, No. 100, 32d Congress, ist Session, Wash- 

 ington, 1852, pp. I-S5. 



^* Senate Executive Documents, No. 100, 32d Congress, ist Session, Wash- 

 ington, 1852, p. 108. 



