24 WILD ANIMALS. 



continues fast till it is killed. So where it appeared that the 

 whale, when struck by the harpoon of the appellants' ship, 

 had got free from the respondent's harpoon, though it re- 

 mained sticking in her, she was held to belong to the appel- 

 lants." And, in general, if the first harpoon or line breaks 

 or the line attached to the harpoon is not in the power of the 

 striker, the fish is a loose fish and will become the property 

 of any other person who strikes and obtains it."^ But it was 

 held a more reasonable usage than this, that a fish is to be 

 considered a fast fish which is attached by any means (such 

 as the entanglement of the line round it, etc.) to the boat of 

 the first striker, though the harpoon does not continue in the 

 whale's body.®^ 



In a United States case where a crew struck a whale with 

 a harpoon which with the line remained fast to the whale but 

 not to the boat, and another crew continued the pursuit and 

 captured the whale, it was held that a usage that the whale 

 should belong to the first crew was valid. "It is not disputed 

 that the whalemen of this State [i. e., Massachusetts], who 

 have for many years past formed, I suppose, a very large pro- 

 portion of all those who follow this dangerous trade in the 

 Arctic seas, and perhaps all other Americans, have for a very 

 long time recognized a custom by which the iron holds the 

 whale, as they express it. The converse of the proposition 

 is that a whale found adrift though with an iron in it belongs 

 to the finder, if it can be cut in before demand made. The 

 usage of the English and Scotch whalemen in the Northern 

 fishery, as shown by the cases, is that the iron holds the whale 

 only while the line remains fast to the boat; and the result is 

 that every loose whale, dead or alive, belongs to the finder 



°' Addison v. Row, 3 Paton App. Cas. (Sc.) 334. And see Aberdeen 

 Arctic Co. V. Sutter, 4 MacQueen (Sc.) 355. 



''- Littledale v. Scaith, 3 Taunt. 243 n — this custom being that of the 

 Greenland fishery. But, by the custom in the Gallipagos Islands, he who 

 strikes a whale with a loose harpoon is entitled to receive half the produce 

 from him who kills it: Fennings v. Granville, i Taunt. 241. 



" Hogarth v. Jackson, 2 C. & P. 595. 



