be restored to him without delay; but, if no such property be proved within that time, they then shall be the king's. If the goods are of a perishable nature, the sheriff may sell them, and the money shall be liable in their stead[k]. This revenue of wrecks is frequently granted out to lords of manors, as a royal franchise; and if any one be thus entitled to wrecks in his own land, and the king's goods are wrecked thereon, the king may claim them at any time, even after the year and day[l]. [Footnote z: Dr & St. d. 2. c. 51.] [Footnote a: Spelm. _Cod. apud_ Wilkins. 305.] [Footnote b: 26 May, _A.D._ 1174. 1 Rym. _Foed._ 36.] [Footnote c: Rog. Hoved. _in Ric. I_.] [Footnote d: In like manner Constantine the great, finding that by the imperial law the revenue of wrecks was given to the prince's treasury or _fiscus_, restrained it by an edict (_Cod._ 11. 5. 1.) and ordered them to remain to the owners; adding this humane expostulation, "_Quod enim jus habet fiscus in aliena calamitate, ut de re tam luctuosa compendium sectetur?_"] [Footnote e: Bract. _l._ 3. _c._ 3.] [Footnote f: 3 Edw. I. c. 4.] [Footnote g: Flet. 1. _c._ 44. 2 Inst. 167.] [Footnote h: Sec. 28.] [Footnote i: 2 Inst. 168.] [Footnote k: Plowd. 166.] [Footnote l: 2 Inst. 168. Bro. Abr. _tit. Wreck_.] IT is to be observed, that in order to constitute a legal _wreck_, the goods must come to land. If they continue at sea, the law distinguishes them by the barbarous and uncouth appellations of _jetsam_, _flotsam_, and _ligan_. Jetsam is where goods are cast into the sea, and there sink and remain under water: flotsam is where they continue swimming on the surface of the waves: ligan is where they are sunk in the sea, but tied to a cork or buoy, in order to be found again[m]. These are also the king's, if no owner appears to claim them; but, if any owner appears, he is entitled to recover the possession. For even if they be cast overboard, without any mark or buoy, in order to lighten the ship, the owner is not by this act of necessity construed to have renounced his property[n]: much less can things ligan be supposed to be abandoned, since the owner has done all in his power, to assert and retain his property. These three are therefore accounted so far a distinct thing from the former, that by the king's grant to a man of wrecks, things jetsam, flotsam, and ligan will not pass[o]. [Footnote m: 5 Rep. 106.] [Footnote n: _Quae enim res in tempestate, levandae navis causa, ejiciuntur, hac dominorum permanent. Quia palam est, eas non eo animo ejici, quod quis habere nolit._ _Inst._ 2. 1. Sec. 48.] [Footnote o: 5 Rep. 108.]