TERRITORIAL WATERS. It is difficult to draw any precise conclusion as to the dis tance to which a state may lawfully extend its exclusive dominion over the sea adjoining its territories, and beyond those portions of the sea which are embraced by harbors, etc., over which it has unquestioned jurisdiction. All that can reasonably be asserted is that it extends as far as may be requisite for the state's safety, and for some lawful end. Un til recent years it was generally recognized as extending as far as a cannon shot Would reach---4. e. a marine league; 1 Kent 29; this limit was fixed when that was the range of a cannon; v. Beerman, 41 Ohio St. 81, 52 Am. Rep. 71; it is said that it can be extended as the range of cannon increases ; Hall, Int. L. 157. It may be extended for protection in time of war, or for revenue pur poses ; Manchester v. Massachusetts, 139 U. S. 240, 11 Sup. Ct. 559, 35 L. Ed. 159; The Hungaria, 41 Fed. 109. Congress has recog nized the customary limit by legislation as to captures made within a marine league of the shore; 1 Kent 29. It is three miles from low-water mark; Behr. Sea Case.
State legislation in Massachusetts which extends the territorial limit of a state three miles seaward from the shore is valid; Man chester v. Massachusetts, 139 U. S. 240, 11 Sup. Ct. 559, 35 L. Ed. 159; i. e. it may ex tend its territorial limits and the boundaries of its counties to the extent of the limits of the United States. So of a California act relating to a crime committed within the same limit ; In re Humboldt Lumber Man uf'rs Ass'n, 60 Fed. 428. Parliament "may extend the realm how far soever it may please;" 2 Ex. D. 152. Under the Behring Sea Arbitration, it was decided that the United States cannot protect seals in the open sea beyond the three-mile limit.
It would not be unreasonable for the Unit ed States to assume control of the waters on the coast included within distant headlands, as from Cape Ann to Cape Cod, Nantucket to Montauk Point, and from the latter to the Capes of the Delaware; 1 Kent 30.
"As between nations, the minimum limit of the territorial jurisdiction of a nation over tide waters is a marine league from the coast, and bays wholly within its terri tory which do not exceed two marine leagues at the mouth are within this limit." Man
chester v. Massachusetts, 139 U. S. 240, 11 Sup. Ct. 559, 35 L. Ed. 159. The Gulf of Mexico is part of the Atlantic Ocean; Merchants' Mut. Ins. Co. v. Allen, 121 U. S. 67, 7 Sup. Ct. 821, 30 L. Ed. 858; but on the other hand, the exclusive right of the British crown to the Bristol Channel, to the channel between Ireland and Great Britain, and be tween Scotland and Ireland, is uncontested ; 1 Phill. Int. L. § 189; and Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay are not a part of the high sea ; 1 Whart. Int. L. § 28; Narragansett Bay is claimed, by usage, to be within the jurisdiction of Rhode Island ; American S. B. Co. v. Chase, 16 Wall. (U. S.) 522, 21 L. Ed. 369 ; Chase v. Steamboat Co., 9 R. 1. 419, 11 Am. Rep. 274 ; and Conception Bay in Newfoundland, though more than 20 miles wide at its mouth and nearly 50 miles long, is British territory ; 2 App. Cas. 394.. It is probable that the Delaware (1 Op. Atty. Gen. 15) and Chesapeake (4 Moore, Int. Ar bitr.) bays are the property of the United States. England claims complete jurisdic tion over the bays of Chaleur, Fortune, and Conception, and some other bays of New foundland, as closed seas; Snow, Int. Law 27. The Zuyder Zee and Hudson's Bay are probably parts of the territory of the nations which surround them; while the bays of Fundy and Chaleur are public ; 3 Whart. Int. L. 28, 304, 305 a. The claim of Russia to sovereignty over the Pacific Ocean north of the 51st degree of latitude was consid ered by the United States as against the rights of other nations ; 1 Kent 29.
The territorial waters of the United King dom, under the act of Aug. 16, 1878, are such as at.* deemed so by international law, and for the purpose of any offence declared by the act to be within the jurisdiction of the admiralty, it is one marine league from low-water mark ; 1 Moore Int. L. 714.
See 1895 Rep. Society for Reform and Codif. of the Laws, 17th meeting ; 5 Eng. Rul. Cas. 946; PILOT; JURISDICTION; MARE CLAusum.