API'. N° VI.] SIGNALS USED IN Till: FISHERY. 521 



cussion, by comparing Mrs E. to a loose fish, whom any one 

 had a right to seize. In that case, Mr E. the husband, had 

 originally harpooned the lady ; he had her fast ; but when he 

 found she ran out too much line, he left her to plunge into 

 the sea of folly and dissipation by herself, dragging the weight 

 of her raarriag-e vow alonjx with her. But he did not the less 

 abandon her because she Avas fastened to his boat. When he 

 wished to recover her, or damages for her loss, it was said. 

 No, — he had given her vip, — he had left her to her fate, and 

 as another had harpooned her, he had a right to retain her. 

 He admitted that the Solicitor-General had put the present 

 case very fairly, when he said the boat was placed like a 

 buoy, to cry out, " This is the fish of the Neptune." If such 

 an argument could prevail, it would only be necessary to tie 

 a buoy to a line, and it might cry stinking fish long enough 

 before any one would be at the trouble of saving the Avhale 

 attached to it. He concluded, by expressing his firm convic- 

 tion that the law was with the defendant. 



Lord Ellenuorough said, he could not help making a 

 distinction as to the boat, which the men quitted in order to 

 save themselves. With regard to the harpoon and line, the 

 fish, when it made off with them, acquired, if he might use 

 the phrase, a kind of property in them, and any body who af- 

 terwards took the fish had a right to the harpoon in it. 



The defendant undertook to return the boat, and the Jury 

 gave a verdict for the plaintiff. Damages Is. ; costs 40s. 



No. VI. 



SIGNALS USED IN THE WHALE-FISHERY. 



The commanding view which is obtained from a ship'^s 

 mast-head, enables a person on the look-out in the crow''s 

 nest to form a much more correct idea of the movements of a 

 whale, and of the position of boats, ice, &c. than it is possible 

 for the most experienced person to do I'rom a boat moving on 



