from Cape Rosiere to Mingan settlement, in Labrador, is one hundred and five miles in length.”

Thus, width is no objection. The real entrance to the Miramichi is, however, but one and a half miles wide. Admiral Bayfield may, apparently, be cited by both Commissioners as authority. He says, pages 30, 31, and 32 :—

“ Miramichi Bay is nearly fourteen miles wide, from the sand-bars off Point Blackland to Point Escuminac beacon, and six and a half miles deep, from that line across its mouth, to the main entrance of the Miramichi, between Portage and Fox Islands. The bay is formed by a semi-circular range of low, sandy islands, between which there are three small passages, and one main, or ship channel, leading into the inner bay, or estuary, of the Miramichi. The Neguac Gully, between the sand bar of the same name, and a small one to the South West, is 280 fathoms wide, and three fathoms deep ; but a sandy bar of the usual mutable character, lies off it, nearly a mile to the S.S.E., and had about nine feet over it at low water, at the time of our survey. Within the Gully, a very narrow channel, only fit for boats, or very small craft, leads Westward, up the inner bay. The shoal water extends one and a quarter miles off this Gully, but there is excellent warning, by the lead, here and everywhere in this bay, as will be seen by the chart. Shoals, nearly dry at low water, extend from the Neguac Gully to Portage Island, a distance of one and a quarter miles to the South West. Portage Island is four miles long, in a South-West-by-South direction ; narrow, low, and partially wooded with small spruce trees and bushes. The ship channel, between this Island and Fox Island, is one and a half miles wide.”

“ Fox Island, three and three quarters miles long, in a S.S.E. direction, is narrow and partially wooded : like Portage Island, it is formed of parallel ranges of sand hills, which contain imbedded drift timber, and have evidently been thrown up by the Sea, in the course of ages. These islands are merely sand-bars on a large scale, and no where rise higher than fifty feet above the sea. They are incapable of agricultural cultivation, but yet they abound in plants and shrubs, suited to such a locality, and in wild fruits, such as the blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry. Wild fowl of various kinds are also plentiful in their season ; and so also are salmon, which are taken in nets and weirs, along the beaches outside the Islands as well as in the Gullies.

“ The next, and last, of these islands, is Huckleberry Island, which is nearly one and a half miles long, in a South East direction. Fox Gully, between Huckleberry and Fox Islands, is about 150 fathoms wide at high water, and from 2 to 2 ½ fathoms deep, but there is a bar outside, with seven feet at low water. Huckleberry Gully, between the Island of the same name and the mainland, is about 200 fathoms wide ; but is not quite so deep as Fox Gully. They are both only fit for boats, or very small craft ; and the channels leading from them to the Westward, up a bay of the main within Huckleberry Island, or across to the French River and village, are narrow and

intricate, between flats of sand, mud, and eel-grass, and with only water enough for boats. Six and a quarter miles from the Huckleberry Gully, along the low shore of the mainland, in an E.S.E. ½ E. direction, brings us to the beacon at Point Escuminac, and completes the circuit of the bay.

“ The bar of Miramichi commences from the South East end of Portage Island, and extends across the main entrance, and parallel to Fox Island, nearly six miles in a South East by South direction. It consists of sand, and has not more than a foot or two of water over it, in some parts, at low spring tides.”

He also says pp. 37 and 39 :—“ The Inner Bay of Miramichi is of great extent, being about thirteen miles long, from its entrance at Fox Island to Sheldrake Island, (where the River may properly be said to commence,) and seven or eight miles wide. The depth of water across the Bay is sufficient for the largest vessels that can cross the inner bar, being 2 ¾ fathoms at low water, in ordinary spring tides, with muddy bottom.

“ Sheldrake Island lies off Napan Point, at the distance of rather more than three quarters of a mile, and bears from Point Cheval, North-West by West one and three-quarters of a mile. Shallow water extends far off this Island, in every direction, Westward to Bartibogue Island and Eastward to Oak Point. It also sweeps round to the South and South East, so as to leave only a very narrow channel between it and the shoal which fills Napan Bay, and trending away to the Eastward past Point Cheval, forms the Middle Ground already mentioned. Murdock Spit and Murdock Point are two sandy points, a third of a mile apart, with a cove between them, and about a mile W.S.W. of Sheldrake Island. The entrance of Miramichi River is three-quarters of a mile wide, between these points and Moody Point, which has a small Indian church upon it, and is the East Point of entrance of Bartiboge River, a mile North West-by-West half West from Sheldrake Island.”

But a strong, and I may add, a conclusive point, in shewing the passage between Fox and Portage Island, to be the main entrance, or mouth of the Miramichi, is the peculiar action of the tides. It is thus described by Bayfield, p. 35 :—

“ The stream of the tides is not strong in the open bay, outside the bar of Miramichi. The flood draws in towards the entrance, as into a funnel, coming both from the North East and South East, alongshore from Tabusintac as well as Point Escuminac. It sets fairly through the ship channel at the rate of 1 ½ knots, at the Black buoy, increasing to 2, or 2 ½ knots, in strong spring tides, between Portage and Fox Islands, where it is strongest. The principal part of the stream continues to flow Westward, in the direction of the buoys of the Horse-shoe, although some part of it flows to the North-ward, between that shoal and Portage Island.”

The effect of this is thus singularly felt. A boat leaving Neguac, to ascend the Miramichi with the flood tide, is absolutely met by the tide flowing Northerly against it, until coming abreast of the Horse-shoe Shoal, or in the line of the main entrance ; and a boat at the Horse-shoe Shoal, steering for Neguac, with the ebb-tide making, would have the current against it, though Neguac is on a line as far seaward as the entrance to the Portage and Fox Islands—thus shewing conclusively that the main inlet and outlet of the tidal waters, to and from the mouth or entrance of the Miramichi, is between Portage and Fox Islands.

As such Arbitrator or Umpire, I decide that a line connecting Fox and Portage Islands, (marked in red, Plan No. 2, Record Book No. 2,) designates the mouth of the Miramichi River.

Dated at St. John, in the Province of New Brunswick, this 8th day of April, A.D. 1858.

I, the undersigned Arbitrator or Umpire, under the Reciprocity Treaty, concluded and signed at Washington, on the 5th day of June, A.D., 1854, have proceeded to, and examined the mouth of the River Buctouche, in the Province of New Brunswick, concerning which a difference of opinion had arisen between Her Britannic Majesty's Commissioner, and the Commissioner of the United States, as disclosed in Record No. 1, of their proceedings :

With reference to the Buctouche, it will be seen by Record No. 1 :—“ Her Majesty's Commissioner claims that a line from Glover's Point to the southern extremity of the Sand bar, marked in red on the Plan, No. 1, designates the mouth of the said River Buctouche. The United States Commissioner claims that a line from Chapel Point, bearing South 4° West, (magnetic) marked in blue on said plan, No. 1, designates the mouth of said River.”

On the subject of this River the United States Commissioner addresses me as follows :—“ The red line, extending from ' Glover's Point' to the point of the ' Sand Bar,' is the line marked by Her Majesty's Commissioner, as designating the mouth of the River ; in that line I could not concur, because it excludes from the common right of fishing the whole of Buctouche harbour, in contravention of the express words of the Treaty.”“ If it had been the duty and office of the Commissioners to indicate the point which constituted the mouth of the harbour, I should have been disposed to acquiesce in the point and line thus denoted ; but from the proposition, that it marks the entrance of these rivers, or any one of them, into the sea, or hay, or harbour, and constitutes their mouth, I entirely dissent.”

With the views I have already expressed, that the mouth of a River does not lose its Treaty character because it constitutes a harbour, it becomes important to determine which is the principal agent in forming this harbour, the river, or the sea ? If it is a mere indentation of the coast, formed by the sea—a creek—a bay—or harbour—unformed by, and unconnected with any River—one of those indentations in a coast, indebted to the Sea mainly for its waters, then plainly it is not intended, or entitled to be reserved ; but if, on the contrary, it is formed by the escape of waters from the interior, by a River seeking its outlet to the deep, shewing by the width and depth of its channel, at low water, that it is not to the Sea it owes its formation—then plainly, it is to the mouth of a River, and intended to be reserved.

Admiral Bayfield describes the Buctouche as follows, pp. 53 and 54 :—

“ Buctouche Roadstead, off the entrance of Buctouche River, and in the widest part of the channel within the outer bar, is perfectly safe for a vessel with good anchors and cables ; the ground being a stiff tenacious clay, and the outer bar preventing any very heavy sea from coming into the anchorage. It is here that vessels of too great draft of water to enter the River, lie moored to take in cargoes of lumber.

“ Buctouche River enters the Sea to the South East, through the shallow bay within the Buctouche sand bar, as will be seen in the chart. The two white beacons which I have mentioned as pointing out the best anchorage in the roadstead, are intended to lead in over the bar of sand and flat sandstone, in the best water, namely, eight feet at low water, and twelve feet at high water, in ordinary spring tides. But the channel is so narrow, intricate, and encumbered with oyster beds, that written directions are as useless as the assistance of a pilot is absolutely necessary to take a vessel safely into the River. Within the bar is a wide part of the channel, in which vessels may ride safely, in two-and-a-half, and three fathoms, over mud bottom ; but off Giddis Point, the channel becomes as difficult, narrow, and shallow, as at the bar. It is in its course through the bay, that the Buctouche is so shallow and intricate ; higher up, its channel being free from obstruction, and in some places five fathoms deep. Having crossed the bar, a vessel may ascend about ten miles further, and boats thirteen or fourteen miles, to where the tide water ends.”

By an examination of the channel, we find, miles up this River, a deep continuous channel, of twelve, fifteen, twenty, twenty-four, and thirty feet, down to Priest Point, varying from eighteen to twenty-four feet, to Giddis Point, and thence to a line drawn across from the Sand Bar to Glover's Point, from seven to twenty feet, but of greater width. On the outside of this channel, which is clearly defined, and between the sand bar and the channel, we find mud fiats, with dry patches, and oyster beds, —“ flats of mud and eel grass, with dry patches at low water ;” with depths from Priest Point to the sand bar, varying from four to six feet ; and from the channel off Giddis Point to the bar, from one foot to three. On the other side of the channel,

between Priest Point and Giddis Point, we find—“ flats of mud and weeds, with dry patches and oyster beds.” What has given depth and breadth to this channel ? The tide rises in the vicinity about four feet ; would that rise create a channel of the average depth above named ? Can there be any doubt that it is created by the great body of the River water finding its way to the Sea ? The line from “Glover's Point to the Southern extremity of the sand bar, marked in red on Plan No. 1,” is claimed by Her Majesty's Commissioner as the mouth of the River, and admitted by the United States Commissioner as the mouth of the harbour ; but if there were no River here, would there be any harbour at all ? I think not, and this line, therefore, while it constitutes the mouth of the harbour, also constitutes the mouth of the River.

This conclusion is consonant with the conclusion at which the Commissioners themselves arrived, in the cases of the Elliot and Montague Rivers in Prince Edward Island, as shewn by Records Nos. 9 and 10. The harbours of Charlottetown and Georgetown, are clearly within the lines they have marked and designated as the mouths of those Rivers respectively, and thus within the lines of exclusion ; but if the express words of the Treaty gave a right to such harbours, because “ harbours,” then why did the Commissioners exclude them ? And why should not the same principle which governed the Commissioners in their decision with regard to those “ harbours,” also govern with regard to the Buctouche harbour ?

As Arbitrator or Umpire, I decide that a line from Glover's Point to the Southern extremity of the sand bar, marked in red on Plan No. 1, in Record No. 2, designates the mouth of the River Buctouche.

Dated at St. John, in the Province of New Brunswick, this 8th day of April A.D. 1858.

It may not come within the exact line of my duty, but I cannot forbear remarking that the true benefits of this Treaty can only be realized to the inhabitants of both countries, by a course of mutual forbearance and enlightened liberality. Captious objections, fancied violations and insults, should be discountenanced ; and, above all, there should be an abstinence from attributing to either nation or people, as a national feeling, the spirit of aggression which may occasionally lead individuals to act in direct contravention of its terms. Every friend of humanity would regret further misunderstanding between Great Britain and the United States. The march of improvement, which is to bring the broad regions of North America, between the Atlantic and Pacific, within the pale of civilization, is committed by Providence to their direction ; fearful will be the responsibility of that nation which mars so noble a heritage.

Dated at St. John, in the Province of New Brunswick, this 8th day of April, A.D., 1858.

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