practically taking it for the state on the original owner not being found. The modern English law on the subject of wreck (including everything found on the shore of the sea or tidal river) is contained in the Merchant Shipping Act 1894. The finder must forthwith make known his discovery to the receiver of wreck under a penalty. He is entitled to a salvage reward, but the property belongs to the crown or its grantee unless the true owner claims within a year. In the United States unclaimed wreck after a year generally becomes the property of the state. In Scotland the right to lost property is theoretically in the crown, but the finder would not in practice be interfered with except under the provisions of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892. Section 412 requires all persons finding goods to deliver them forthwith to the police under a penalty. If the true owner is not discovered within six months the magistrates may hand them over to the finder. If the owner appears he must pay a reasonable reward. Domestic animals, including swans, found straying without an owner may be seized by the crown or lord of the manor, and if not claimed within a year and a day they become the property of the crown or the lord, on the observance of certain formalities. In Scotland they were held to belong to the crown or its donatory, usually the sheriff of a county. By the Burgh Police Act above quoted provision is made for the sale of lost animals and the disposal of the free proceeds for the purposes of the act unless such be claimed. In the United States there is diversity of law and custom. Apart from special rule, lost animals become the property of the finder, but in many cases the proceeds of their sale are applied to public purposes. When property is lost by carriers, innkeepers or railway companies, special provisions as to their respective responsibilities apply. As to finds of money or the precious metals, see Treasure Trove.
LOSTWITHIEL, a market town and municipal borough in the Bodmin parliamentary division of Cornwall, England, 30½ m. W. of Plymouth by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 1379. It is pleasantly situated on the banks of the river Fowey. The church of St Bartholomew is remarkable for a fine Early English tower surmounted by a Decorated spire; there are also beautiful Decorated windows and details in the body of the church, and a richly carved octagonal font. A bridge of the 14th century crosses the river. The shire hall includes remains of a building, called the Stannary prison, dating from the 13th century. The Great Western railway has workshops at Lostwithiel.
Lostwithiel owed its ancient liberties—probably its existence—to the neighbouring castle of Restormel. The Pipe Rolls (1194-1203) show that Robert de Cardinan, lord of Restormel, paid ten marks yearly for having a market at Lostwithiel. By an undated charter still preserved with the corporation’s muniments he surrendered to the burgesses all the liberties given them by his predecessors (antecessores) when they founded the town. These included hereditary succession to tenements, exemption from sullage, the right to elect a reeve (praepositus) if the grantor thought one necessary and the right to marry without the lord’s interference. By Isolda, granddaughter of Robert de Cardinan, the town was given to Richard, king of the Romans, who in the third year of his reign granted to the burgesses a gild merchant sac and soc, toll, team and infangenethef, freedom from pontage, lastage, &c., throughout Cornwall, and exemption from the jurisdiction of the hundred and county courts, also a yearly fair and a weekly market. Richard transferred the assizes from Launceston to Lostwithiel. His son Edmund, earl of Cornwall, built a great hall at Lostwithiel and decreed that the coinage of tin should be at Lostwithiel only. In 1325 Richard’s charter was confirmed and the market ordered to be held on Thursdays. In 1386 the assizes were transferred back to Launceston. In 1609 a charter of incorporation provided for a mayor, recorder, six capital burgesses and seventeen assistants and courts of record and pie powder. The boundaries of the borough were extended in 1733. Under the reformed charter granted in 1885 the corporation consists of a mayor, four aldermen and twelve councillors. From 1305 to 1832 two members represented Lostwithiel in parliament. The electors after 1609 were the twenty-five members of the corporation. Under the Reform Act (1832) the borough became merged in the county. For the Thursday market granted in 1326 a Friday market was substituted in 1733, and this continues to be held. The fair granted in 1326 and the three fairs granted in 1733 have all given place to others. The archdeacon’s court, the sessions and the county elections were long held at Lostwithiel, but all have now been removed. For the victory gained by Charles I. over the earl of Essex in 1644, see Great Rebellion.
LOT, in the Bible, the legendary ancestor of the two Palestinian peoples, Moab and Ammon (Gen. xix. 30-38; cp. Ps. lxxxiii. 8); he appears to have been represented as a Horite or Edomite (cp. the name Lotan, Gen. xxxvi. 20, 22). As the son of Haran and grandson of Terah, he was Abraham’s nephew (Gen. xi. 31), and he accompanied his uncle in his migration from Haran to Canaan. Near Bethel[1] Lot separated from Abraham, owing to disputes between their shepherds, and being offered the first choice, chose the rich fields of the Jordan valley which were as fertile and well irrigated as the “garden of Yahweh” (i.e. Eden, Gen. xiii. 7 sqq.). It was in this district that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were situated. He was saved from their fate by two divine messengers who spent the night in his house, and next morning led Lot, his wife, and his two unmarried daughters out of the city. His wife looked back and was changed to a pillar of salt,[2] but Lot with his two daughters escaped first to Zoar and then to the mountains east of the Dead Sea, where the daughters planned and executed an incest by which they became the mothers of Moab and Ben-Ammi (i.e. Ammon; Gen. xix.). The account of Chedorlaomer’s invasion and of Lot’s rescue by Abraham belongs to an independent source (Gen. xiv.), the age and historical value of which has been much disputed. (See further Abraham; Melchizedek.) Lot’s character is made to stand in strong contrast with that of Abraham, notably in the representation of his selfishness (xiii. 5 sqq.), and reluctance to leave the sinful city (xix. 16 sqq.); relatively, however, he was superior to the rest (with the crude story of his insistence upon the inviolable rights of guests, xix. 5 sqq.; cf. Judges xix. 22 sqq.), and is regarded in 2 Pet. ii. 7 seq. as a type of righteousness.
Lot and his daughters passed into Arabic tradition from the Jews. The daughters are named Zahy and Ra’wa by Mas’ūdī ii. 139; but other Arabian writers give other forms. Paton (Syria and Palestine, pp. 43, 123) identifies Lot-Lotan with Ruten, one of the Egyptian names for Palestine; its true meaning is obscure. For traces of mythical elements in the story see Winckler, Altorient. Forsch. ii. 87 seq. See further, J. Skinner, Genesis, pp. 310 sqq. (S. A. C.)
LOT (Lat. Oltis), a river of southern France flowing westward across the central plateau, through the departments of Lozère, Aveyron, Lot and Lot-et-Garonne. Its length is about 300 m., the area of its basin 4444 sq. m. The river rises in the Cévennes on the Mont du Goulet at a height of 4918 ft. about 15 m. E. of Mende, past which it flows. Its upper course lies through gorges between the Causse of Mende and Aubrac Mountains on the north and the tablelands (causses) of Sauveterre, Severac and Comtal on the south. Thence its sinuous course crosses the plateau of Quercy and entering a wider fertile plain flows into the Garonne at Aiguillon between Agen and Marmande. Its largest tributary, the Truyère, rises in the Margeride mountains and after a circuitous course joins it on the right at Entraygues (department of Aveyron), its affluence more than
- ↑ The district is thus regarded as the place where the Hebrews, on the one side, and the Moabites and Ammonites, on the other, commence their independent history. Whilst the latter settle across the Jordan, Abraham moves down south to Hebron.
- ↑ Tradition points to the Jebel Usdum (cp. the name Sodom) at the S.W. end of the Dead Sea. It consists almost entirely of pure crystallized salt with pillars and pinnacles such as might have given rise to the story (see Driver, Genesis, p. 201; and cf. also Palestine Explor. Fund, Quart. Statements, 1871, p. 16, 1885, p. 20; Conder, Syrian Stone-lore, p. 279 seq.). Jesus cites the story of Lot and his wife to illustrate the sudden coming of the Kingdom of God (Luke xvii. 28-32). The history of the interpretation of the legend by the early and medieval church down to the era of rational and scientific investigation will be found in A. D. White, Warfare of Science with Theology, ii. ch. xviii.
