Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/928

 920 FEDERAL REPORTER. �not they saw'the light when they came up on deck after the collision. In this conflict of testimony I find myself unable to arrive at a satisfactory determination of the question whether or not, at the time of the collision, the sehooner's light was burning. �When, however, a vessel in motion cornes into collision with one at anchor, the presumption is that it was the fault of the vessel in motion, ùnless the anehored vessel is in an improper place ; so that, in the inconclîisive state of the testi- mony with regard to the light, it becomes of great importance to determine where the schooner was at anchor, and whether she was lawfully there. The natural channel of the Little Annamessex river, on which is the town of Crisfield, was f ound insufflcient for the steamboats and other vessels attracted by the railroad which terminates there. With the aid of appro- priations from the general government the channel was dredged ont so that now there is, from Tangier sound to the railroad wharf at Crisfield, a channel about 300 feet wide and from 10 to 13 feet deep, �The legislature of Maryland expressed its sense of the great importance of preventing this channel from being filled up and keeping it free from obstructions to navigation by pass- ing the act of 1867, c. 295, by which penalties are enacted against throwing into it any substances tending to fill up the river, and by which it is declared that it shall not be lawful to anchor any boat in said river between the railroad wharf at Crisfield and Tangier sound, in the track of any inward or outward bound vessels, and imposes a fine of not less than $20 nor more than $100 for every such offence; further declaring that if any boat, while anehored in the river con- trary to said act, shall be collided with and damaged by any inward or outward-bound vessel, the owner thereof shall not be entitled to recover for any such loss, but said act and the violation thereof shall be a justification of such inward or cntward-bound vessel so coUiding. This dredged channel is not ôf great length, and is in fact, more of the nature of a canal than a river. The danger of anchoring in it is appar- ent, and must have eeriously impressed the membera of the ��� �