THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS 45 



theory has, of course, become upset by the advance 

 made by modern artillery, but the old limit has 

 become fixed in law. Curiously enough, the old 

 Scottish law seems to have held that the territorial 

 limits extended so far seawards as a man could see 

 from the shore, or to that distance at sea from 

 which the ordinary land contour could be ob- 

 served.^ In the older days of fishing the three- 

 mile limit was probably sufficient, as sea-fishing 

 would not be practised much beyond that distance 

 from the shore. For a very long time, however, 

 the area over which fishing boats have worked has 

 continually extended, and it was soon found that 

 some jurisdiction was necessary over fishermen 

 working outside territorial waters. It seems clear 

 that the Government of this country, at least, has 

 the power of regulating the conduct of its own 

 fishermen, wherever they may be working, whether 

 within the territorial waters or on the high seas, 

 and the closure of the offshore portion of the 

 Moray Firth is a case which illustrates this. This 

 control over foreign fishermen also, and easy 



^ Wider views were held at one time, however. " In the time of 

 K. James the 5th, the Hollanders having only a verbal licence to fish 

 at 28 miles distance cam neere the shore into the mouth of the 

 Furth of Edenborough, and ther fished in despight of the Kings 

 comand. Then the King sent out men of warre and took so manie 

 of them that he sent a barilful of their heads into Holland w'" their 

 names fixed to their forheads uppon cards." The King had a grim 

 sense of humour. (MS. in Public Records Office. State Papers, 

 vol. clii., No. 63 ; quoted in Mackenzie's History of the Outer 

 Hebrides, p. 304, Paisley, 1903). 



