Appendix to the Memorial. 137 



tion of entering. Whatever of this kfad you take is regarded 

 as your property, so long as it remains in your keeping, but 

 when it has escaped and recovered its natural liberty, it ceases 

 to be yours, and again becomes the property of him who 

 captures it. It is considered to have recovered its natural 

 liberty if it has either escaped out of your sight, or if, although 

 not out of sight, it yet could not be pursued without great 

 difficulty. 



13. It has been asked, whether, if you have wounded a 

 wild beast, so that it could be easily taken, it immediately be- 

 comes your property. Some have thought that it does become 

 yours directly you wound it, and that it continues to be yours 

 while you continue to pursue it. but that if you cease to pursue 

 it, it then ceases to be yours, and again becomes the property 

 of the first person who captures it. Others have thought that 

 it does not become your property until you have captured it. 

 We confirm this latter opinion because many accidents may 

 happen to prevent your capturing it. D. xli., tit. 1. 



Gaius in this passage of the Digest informs us that the former 

 opinion was that of Trebatius, 



It cannot be denied that these Roman rules never prevailed 

 in England or on the continent of Europe to their full extent, at 

 least as to wild animals taken or caught on private grounds by a 

 trespasser or a wrongdoer. As Lord Chelmsford, referring to the 

 passage from the Institutes, points out in Blades v. Higgs, in 

 1865^': 



With respect only to live animals in a wild and unre- 

 claimed state, there seems to be no difiference between the 

 Roman and the common law. 



Jurists agree that the word "occupation," capture," or cus- 

 tody," used in the Institutes, means bodily possession, corpore et 

 animo, although it is contended by some that the fisherman who 

 has secured fish in his seine, or the hunter who has wounded a 

 wild animal, has acquired some qualified rights of ownership over 

 the same, provided the fishing or hunting be continued, but if 



n\ H. L. Cas. 637. 



