HIGH SEAS. The uninclosed waters of the ocean, and also those waters on the sea coast which are without the boundaries of low-water mark. U. S. v. Ross, 1 Gall. 624, Fed. Cas. No. 16,196; U. S. v. Grush, 5 Mas. C. C. 290, Fed. Cas. No. 15,268 ; 1 Bla. Com. 110; Bened. Adm.; 2 Hagg. Adm. 398.
Enclosed water on the sea coast and with out the boundaries of low water mark. U. S. v. Imp. Co., 173 Fed. 426. The terms "high sea" and "main sea" are synonymous; id.
The act of congress of April 30, 1790, s. 8, enacts that if any person shall commit upon the high seas, or in any river, haven, basin, or bay, out of the jurisdiction of any par ticular state, murder, etc., which if com mitted within the body of a county would, by the laws of the United States, be pun ishable with death, every such offender, being thereof convicted, shall suffer death ; and the trial of crimes committed on the high seas, or in any place out of the juris diction of any particular state, shall be in the district where the offender is appre hended, or into which he may first be brought. See U. S. v. McGill, 4 Dail. (U. S.)
426, 1 L. Ed. 894; U. S. v. Wiltberger, 3 Wash. C. C. 515, Fed. Cas. No. 16,738; U. S. v. Smith, 1 Mas. 147, Fed. Cas. No. 16,337 ; U. S. v. Seagrist, 4 Blatchf. 420, Fed. Cas. No. 16,245.
It was held in Ex parte Byers, 32 Fed. 406, that the Great Lakes are not high seas, and that these words have been employed from time immemorial to designate the ocean be low low-water mark, and have rarely if ever been applied to interior or land-locked wa ters of any kind ; but the supreme court of the United States has held otherwise, say ing that this term is also applicable to the open, unenclosed waters of the Great Lakes; U. S. v. Rodgers, 150 U. S. 249, 14 Sup. Ct. 109, 37 L. Ed. 1071. See FAECES TERLE ; GREAT LAKES.