1909.] ATLANTIC FISHERIES QUESTION. 335 



vented from fishing by local regulations of Newfoundland, attacked 

 some American fishermen, who, invoking the protection of the pro- 

 visions of the treaty of 1871, prepared to fish.^^ The Newfound- 

 landers destroyed the boats and nets of the Americans. In the 

 official correspondence that ensued, the British government argued 

 that the treaty granted to the Americans only the right to fish in 

 common with British subjects, and thus the former were amenable 

 to the local Newfoundland laws and regulations. 



The American authorities contended that the local laws could 

 not be allowed to regulate or prescribe the provisions of the treaty ; 

 in addition they maintained that damages were due the American 

 fishermen because of the violent attack on them. Eventually this 

 dispute was adjusted by a money payment by Great Britain to the 

 United States of £15,000 " without prejudice to any question of the 

 rights of either government under the treaty of Washington. "*° Ex- 

 cept for this incident the fishing seemed to proceed smoothly until, 

 upon the giving of due notice by the United States, the provisions of 

 the treaty of 1871 regulating the fisheries came to an end on July i, 

 1885. As a result of informal negotiations between Secretary Bay- 

 ard for America, Minister West for Great Britain, and Sir Ambrose 

 Shea for Canada, it was agreed that the privileges of inshore fishing 

 in the respective American and British waters to which the provi- 

 sions of the treaty had applied would be continued for the whole 

 season of 1885. 



In the year 1886 the Canadian authorities seized many Ameri- 

 can fishing vessels. 



On May 6 of that year the Canadian steamer Landsdozvne seized 

 in Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia, a landlocked harbor, where it 

 would seem ridiculous to suppose that an American vessel would 

 attempt to fish, the David J. Adams of the American fishing fleet.*^ 

 She was then taken by the Canadian authorities to Saint Johns, New 

 Brunswick, and on May 10 brought back to Digby, Nova Scotia, 



^' House Executive Documents, No. 84, 46th Congress, 2d Session, Wash- 

 ington, 1880. 



" " Foreign Relations of the United States, 1881," Washington, 1882, p. 509. 



" " Foreign Relations of the United States, 1886," Washington, 1887, pp. 

 341-346, 373-380, 396-404- 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, XLVIII. I93 \V, PRINTED JANUARY 4, I9IO. 



iV\' ^ . " ■' ?!*;«...■*?); 



