rule of construction

A primary rule of construction (according to the English common law), as applicable to grants of lands made by the government to individuals, when they front on the shores of tide-waters, is, that they go no farther than ordinary high-water mark; and if the grant extends over the tide-water, taking the high land on both sides, the land under water does not pass by the ordinary terms of grant, applicable to high lands; because the soil under tide-waters is a public sovereign right, and an estate to itself, in the sovereign, held in trust for the public use, separate from the high land.