“ Massachusetts, the court said: 'We think it must be regarded as established that, as between nations, the minimum limit of the territorial jurisdiction of a nation over tide waters is a marine league from its coast; that bays wholly within its territory, not exceeding 2 marine leagues in width at the mouth, are within this limit; and that included in this territorial jurisdiction is the right of control over fisheries, whether the fish be migratory, freeswimming fish, or free-moving fish, or fish attached to or embedded in the soil. ”

“ You orator avers that the marsh lands claimed by the state of Mississippi to be islands are in truth, with the exception of the Isle a Pitre, Grassy, Half Moon, Round, and Le Petit Pass islands, low-lying marsh lands, forming part of the mainland of the state of Louisiana ”

“ Bernard and the Louisiana marshes constitute a peninsula in the true sense of the word, but insists that they constitute an archipelago of islands. Certainly there are in the body of the Louisiana marshes or St. Bernard peninsula portions of sea marsh which might technically be called islands, because they are land entirely surrounded by water, but they are not true islands. They are rather, as the Commissioner of the General Land Office wrote the Mississippi land commissioner in 1904, 'in fact, hummocks of land surrounded by the marsh and swamp in said townships. ”

“ The lands forming Isle a Pitre have been paying taxes to the state of Louisiana for years. Political and police control and jurisdiction by the parish of St. Bernard officials were exercised over the disputed area, and many instances are given of police control and jurisdiction by Louisiana officials over this general territory. This territory consisted, as heretofore stated, of what was known as the Louisiana marshes, and it is admitted that they have immemorially been known by that name, though some of the witnesses for Mississippi said that they were also known as Grand marshes ”

“ Bernard and Plaquemines from overflow, the legislature of Louisiana adopted an act which created a Lake Borgne basin levee commission, and provided a board of commissioners therefor, as a department of the state government, and the register of the state land office was authorized to transfer all of the unsold lands to the board, which was done in April, 1895. The board was authorized by law to sell these lands, and also to levy taxes to be used in establishing a protective levee system in the district. ”

“ The maritime belt is that part of the sea which, in contradistinction to the open sea, is under the sway of the riparian states, which can exclusively reserve the fishery within their respective maritime belts for their own citizens, whether fish, or pearls, or amber, or other products of the sea. ”

“ But it was not until the enabling act in respect of Mississippi, approved March 1, 1817, that the language was used: 'Thence due south to the Gulf of Mexico; thence, westwardly including all the islands within six leagues of the shore, to the most eastern junction of Pearl river with Lake Borgne,' etc. ”