416 INTERNATIONAL LAWS FOR THE 



the salving boat returns or puts in." Now Article 11 

 distinctly orders that all gear shall be marked ; and the 

 very fact of inserting the words "marked or unmarked," 

 here seems to be an acknowledgment that the law will not 

 be obeyed, and is calculated to lead some persons to 

 consider whether they shall mark all their gear, as 

 this might be the means of identifying them in case 

 of their doing damage to another, or whether they shall 

 not mark their gear, and run the risk of losing it entirely, 

 through not being able to claim it if picked up, for the 

 want of such marks. Section 5 of this article says : 

 "Fishing implements of any kind found unmarked shall 

 be ' treated as wreck.' " This should have been, 'shall be 

 liable to forfeiture, so that unless a person could satisfy the 

 authorities why his gear was not properly marked, he should 

 lose it, whether salved or in use. 



In this section it will be noticed that the term used is 

 " found unmarked," not as in the first section, " found or 

 picked up at sea," so that it may be inferred that if the 

 captain of a cruiser finds nets in use not marked, they 

 are to be treated by him as wreck. If the idea were 

 different, the word salved should have been used instead of 

 "found" 



Section 3 of this same article reads as follows: "The 

 administrative or judicial authorities, according as the laws 

 of the different countries may provide, shall fix the amount 

 which the owners shall pay to the salvors." For the sake 

 of preventing international disagreements it is to be hoped 

 that our Government, at least, will take steps to insure 

 that the authorities here named shall be well acquainted 

 with the value of both English and foreign fishing gear. 

 At present it would be very difficult to find one of these 

 said authorities who possesses such knowledge ; many do 



