Low-Water Mark
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
That line, upon the shore of any tidal ■waters, to which the water recedes at the ebb of the tide. For most purposes, the line ordinarily marked is taken, disregarding extreme recessions, such as occur only occasionally and tinder concitrrence of unusual causes. In Pennsylvania, this term, used as the limit of a riparian owner's title, means ordinary low-water mark, unaffected by drought.
Stover v. Jack, 60 Pa. St. 339.
A boundary of lands upon " low-water mark " should be construed as meaning the line to which the tide, at its ebb, usually recedes, and not as carrying title to the extremest line to which the water ever recedes. That place to which the tide might ebb under an extraordinary combination of influences, a few times during a generation, could not form such a known boundary as would enable the owners of flats to ascertain satisfactorily the extent to w Meh he could build upon them. High and low water marks, when referred to as boundaries, in descriptions, should be ascertained by the s.ame rule; viz., the place to which the water ordinarily ascends or re-