284. ISLES OF SUMMER. 7 
cerned; the wreckers and government and court officials took all 
that was saved as a compensation for their services. The hurri- 
cane months are August, September and October, yet of these 
313 cases, 199 occurred during the six months ending May 1st 
of each of these seven years, being nearly two-thirds of the whole 
number. 
The amount of salvage awarded from 1855 to 1864, in fifty- 
nine derelict cases, was £11,318 10s. 5d., and in thirty-seven 
salvage cases, £59,955 14s. 8d., making a total salvage for those 
ten years, of over $350,000, being about six times more than 
was paid to the proprictors by the English crown for the whole 
group of islands. In 1865 the owners of the American steamer 
Herman Livingston, which was stranded and got off, paid, 
under an agreement with the master and salvors, $30,000. The 
salvors, after discounting the bill, received £5,480 8s. This was 
divided among thirty-two vessels and boats. 
Governor Rawson says: ‘‘It is stated on good authority, that 
the average salvage allowed, chiefly by arbitration, which twenty 
years ago amounted to sixty per cent., has not during the last 
five years, (1859 to 1864,) exceeded forty per cent., and that the 
charges for commissions amount to ten per cent. on the mer- 
chandise saved, and for labor, storage, &c., to four per cent. 
more. From the above, the extent may be inferred, to which the 
population of the colony, maritime and commercial, has becn and 
continues to be interested in this source of employment and in- 
come.” 
The total value of wrecked property, including bhulks and 
materials, paying ad valorem duties of twenty per cent., auction 
duties of five per cent., and specific duties and of property re- 
exported, aggregated £638,864. 
Gov. Rawson also states that wrecking has had the necessary 
and usual effect of demoralizing the persons engaged in such 
