s? I know all that as well as thou."

"But here is what your Grace does not know. In the sea there are three
kinds of things: those at the bottom, _lagan_; those which float,
_flotsam_; those which the sea throws up on the shore, _jetsam_."

"And then?"

"These three things--_lagan_, _flotsam_, and _jetsam_--belong to the
Lord High Admiral."

"And then?"

"Your Grace understands."

"No."

"All that is in the sea, all that sinks, all that floats, all that is
cast ashore--all belongs to the Admiral of England."

"Everything! Really? And then?"

"Except the sturgeon, which belongs to the king."

"I should have thought," said Josiana, "all that would have belonged to
Neptune."

"Neptune is a fool. He has given up everything. He has allowed the
English to take everything."

"Finish what thou wert saying."

"'Prizes of the sea' is the name given to such _treasure trove_."

"Be it so."

"It is boundless: there is always something floating, something being
cast up. It is the contribution of the sea--the tax which the ocean pays
to England."

"With all my heart. But pray conclude."

"Your Grace understands that in this way the ocean creates a
department."

"Where?"

"At the Admiralty."

"What department?"

"The Sea Prize Department."

"Well?"

"The department is subdivided into three offices--Lagan, Flotsam, and
Jetsam--and in each there is an officer."

"And then?"

"A ship at sea writes to give notice on any subject to those on
land--that it is sailing in such a latitude; that it has met a sea
monster; that it is in sight of shore; that it is in distress; that it
is about to founder; that it is lost, etc. The captain takes a bottle,
puts into it a bit of paper on which he has written the information,
corks up the flask, and casts it into the sea. If the bottle goes to the
bottom, it is in the department of the lagan officer; if it floats, it
is in the department of the flotsam officer; if it be thrown upon shore,
it concerns the jetsam officer."

"And wouldst thou like to be the jetsam officer?"

"Precisely so."

"And that is what thou callest uncorking the bottles of the ocean?"

"Since there is such an appointment."

"Why dost thou wish for the last-named place in preference to both the
others?"

"Because it is vacant just now."

"In what does the appointment consist?"

"Madam, in 1598 a tarred bottle, picked up by a man, conger-fishing on
the strand of Epidium Promontorium, w