Tide

The ebb and flow of the sea. The law takes notice of three kinds of tides, viz., the high spring tides, which are the fluxes of the sea at those tides which happen at the two equinoctials; the spring tides, which happen twice every month, at the full and change of the moon; the neap or ordinary tides, which happen between the full and change of the moon, twice in twenty-four hours.

Angell, Tide Waters, 68.

The changeable condition of the tides produces, of course, corresponding changes in the line of high-water mark. Now, inasmuch as the soil of all tidal waters up to the limit of high-water mark, at common law, is in the crown, or, in this country, in the state, it is important to ascertain what is high-water mark, in legal contemplation, considered as the boundary of the royal or public ownership. In an English case this ownership has been held to be limited by the average of the medium high tides between the spring and the neap in each quarter of a lunar revolution during the year, excluding only extraordinary catastrophes or overflows.

4 De Gex, M. & G. 206; 3 Barn. & Ald. 967; 5 Barn. & Ald. 268; 2 Doug. 629; 7 Pet. (U. S.) 324; 1 Pick. (Mass.) 180; 2 Johns. (N. Y.) 357.

See "River."

See River.