Water

Being a movable, wandering thing, of necessity continues common by the law of nature; so that one can only have a temporary, transient, usufructuary property in it.^ The grantee of land has a usufruct in the water. The limitation is, the use must not interfere with public navigation, nor, in a substantial degree, diminish and impair private rights of use in other proprietors.' ' Hamilton 11.

Austin, 36 Hun, 143 (1886). ' 4 Kent, T7-86. s Ehrardt v. Boaro, 113 V. S. 639 (1885), cases.

4 United States v. Bostwick, 94 U. S. 65-66 (1876), cases; Calif oi'nia Dry-Dock Co. v. Armstrong, 17 F. K. 216 (1883), cases. " Drown v. Smith, 55 Me. 143-44 (1862), cases; Keeler V. Eastman, 11 Yt. 294 (1839); Lynn's Appeal, 31 Pa. 46 (1857;; 66 id. 119. ' Eley's Appeal, 103 Pa. 307 (1883), eases. ' Sierra Company v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., Sup. Ct. Col. (1888): 27 Cent. Law J, 452-54 (1888), cases. S2B1. Com. 14, 18; 5 Conn. *518-19. ' Washington Ice Co. v. Shortall, 101 111. 54 (1881), A grant of land carries title to the center of an unnavigable boundary stream, and includes bed, islands, water, and ice.' Water companies. See Monopoly. Water-course. A stream of water, usually flowing in a definite channel, having a bed and sides or banks, and discharging itself into some other stream or body of water. 2 A living stream with defined banlfs and channel, not necessarily running all the time, but fed from other and more permanent sources than mere surface water.^ Consists ot bed, banks, and water. The water need not flow continually; many water-courses are sometimes dry.* The term does not include occasional bodies of surface water at certain seasons descending from the hills down ravines without any definite channel.' - The size of the stream is not material. There must he a stream in fact, as distinguished from surface drainage occasioned by freshets. Where water has a definite source, as, a spring, and takes a definite channel, it is a water-course, and no person through whose land it flows has a right to divert it from its natural channel so as to injure another land-owner.* See Spring. • ' ^ A natural water-course may be created by the flow of surface water.' Mere surface drainage over one tract of land to another, through a ditch, does not constitute a watercourse.8 Water-mark. High and low watei-marks, referred to as boundaries, mean the place to which the water ordinarily ascends or descends.' Where the tide ebbs and flows, the line of high water is marked by the periodical flow of the tide, excluding the advance of waters above this mark by winds and storms, and by freshets or floods; and the line of low water-mark is the furthest receding point of ebb and flow.w 1 3 Kent, 427-^2; Angell, Water-Cour. § 5; 13 R. I. 614. ' Luther v. Winnisunmet Co., 9 Cush. 174 (1851), Bigelow, J. » Jeflers v. Jef Eers, 107 N. Y. 651 (1887). » Angell, Water-Cour. § 4; 26 Cent. Law J. 26-^1 1 ' Weis V. City of Madi Son, 75 Ind. 253 (1881), cases; 27 id. 556; 37 id. 228; 41 id. 320; 30 Conn. 180; 75 Ind. 263; 25 Kan. SlO; 07 Me. 356; 12 N. J. B. 280; 16 Nev. 317; 10 Oreg. 76; 37 Wis. 226. • Pyle V. Richards, 17 Neb. 182 (1885), cases. 'Kelly V. Dunning, 39 N. J. B. 483 (1886), cases. 6 Stanchfleld v. Newton, 142 Mass. 110, 116 (1886)., • Gerrish v. Proprietors, 86 Me. 39.')-96 (1847), cases, Shepley, J.j 1,13 Mass. 238; 60 Pa. 339, Where streets had been dedicated as terminating at the Hudson River, and, afterward, the bed in front below high water-mark was fl Ued in by legislative authority and the land so made conveyed by the State to the defendants, who had also succeeded to the title of the original owner and dedicator, it was held that the title to the fi Ued-in land was not affected by the dedication, that the streets terminated at the former high water-mark.' See Beach. Water-power. The fall in a stream when in its natural state, as it passes through one's land, or along the boundary of it; the difference of level between the surface where the stream first touches his land, and the surface where it leaves it.^ See further Aqua; Boundary; Commerce; Drain; Mill; Navigable; Property, Qualified; Riparian; ErvER; Surface; Take, 8; Vessel; Well, 1.