High-water mark

This term is properly applicable only to 'tidal waters, and designates the line on the shore reached by the water at the high or flood tide. But it is sometimes also used with reference to the waters of artificial ponds or lakes, created by dams in unnavigable streams, and then denotes the highest point on the shores to which the dams can raise the water in ordinary circumstances.

Howard v. Ingersoll, 13 How. 423, 14 L. Ed. 189; Storer v. Freeman. 6 Mass. 437, 4 Am. Dec. 155; Mobile Transp. Co. v. Mobile, 128 Ala. 335, 30 South. 645, 64 L. R. A. 333, 86 Am. St. Rep. 143; Morrison v. First Nat. Bank, 88 Me. 155, 33 Atl. 782; Brady v. Blackinton, 113 Mass. 245; Cook v. McClure, 58 N. Y. 444, 17 Am. Rep. 270.