LION or RIVERS.
General.— In law a body of water having a uniform current is generally termed a river. It consists of the bed, the water and the banks or shores according as the stream is non-tidal or tidal. The law applicable to rivet-3 and their use depends upon the country having jurisdic tion over them. In the United States the use of navigable rivers is regulated by the laws of the United States and by the legislatures of the States through which they flow. No general statement that is applicable to all streams, and which governs the use of all streams, can be made, and navigable and un navigable rivers are not always subject to the same rules. In the United States, in the most approved and important sense of the term, navigable waters include all those having a channel which is useful for commerce. Such waters are public highways by common right. It has been said in construing the common law and in some of the earlier decisions of the courts that by navigable waters are meant all those in which there is a flow or reflow of the tide. This definition may have been proper in England where there is no river of any con siderable importance which has not a flow of the tide, but it would be unreasonable, in fact it cannot be applied, in the United States where there are large rivers like the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Allegheny, the Delaware, the Hud son, the Schuylkill, the Missouri, the Columbia and others that are very important for the purposes of navigation, and over which large business interests are transacted. To be navi gable rivers, in the legal sense, commerce must be carried on over them which is of a valuable character. It is not necessary, however, that this commerce be carried on by means of boats; waters over which valuable commerce can he carried on are public highways for the purpose, even if they are used only for floating logs and rafts. Most of the authorities in America limit the term navigable waters to waters having an inherent capacity for navigation. Whether a river is navigable or not is generally a con clusion of fact and can be established by proof; but the courts in some States take judicial no tice of the fact that some streams are navigable.
In common law a distinction was made between Waters navigable in law and those navigable in fact; those navigable in law being tide waters. The term is still usedin this sense in England. By the civil law, waters that are in fact naviT gable are such in law, and a. navigable river is defined as a statio itittere novigio (a place or way for navigation). In the development of American law the tendency of the courts has been toward the adoption of the civil-law doc trines. Among navigable waters are two classes, .termed Public and Semi-Public. The basis of classification is ownership. In public waters the soil beneath them is common prop erty. The public have the right of navigation and all rights incident to ownership. them are fishing, gathering ice, sea-weed, sane, gravel, etc. All tide waters, including the sea and its arms and tidal rivers, belong to this class, and in many of the States all fresh-water rivers and lakes which have a capacity for valuable floatage are public. The non-tidal waters and the soil under them are private property, although the interest of the owner is qualified by being subject to the right of the public to pass over them.
jurisdiction.— The right of navigation is subject to the control of the government, and the government has the right to improve rivers and harbors. In England this powerwas vested in Parliament. In the United States the au thorityof Congress under the commercial clause of the Constitution is paramount. In the ab sence of Congressional action, the power of the State legislatures is supreme; they may direct the improvements of navigable rivers, and may authorize improvements. by individuals and by private corporations, and may levy tolls. Waters which lie within the borders of dif ferent States are generally subject to the con current jurisdiction of the States. The terri tory of States and nations when bounded by rivers extends, unless otherwise agreed upon, to the centre of the streams.