WATERWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES, The. The atlas of the world shows that three-fourths of its surface is covered with water. The waters of the earth comprise oceans, seas, straits, gulfs, bays, lakes and rivers. In the main these are navigable, but where not navigable, mock has been done to night them so. In addition thereto. extensive systems of inter secting canals have been constructed, so that natural and artificial waters of the world, known as 'waterways,' comprise all its oceans, seas, gulfs, sounds, bays, many of its lakes and rivers, and all navigable canals.
In the United States the ebb and flow of the tide is not the test of navigability as it was in England before it was abolished by 24 Vice, ch. 10. The Supreme Court of the United States held in the Daniel Ball, 10 Wall.
557, that a different test than tidal variations must be applied here to determine navigability. The courts say that those rivers must be re garded as while navigable rivers in law, which are navigable in fact; and they are navigable in fact when they are used, or are susceptible of being used, in their ordinary condition, as highways for commerce, over which trade and travel are or may be conducted in the custom ary modes of trade and travel on water. The commercial power of Congress authorizes suck legislation as will insure the convenient and safe navigation of all navigable waters of the United States, whether that consists in requiring the removal of obstructions to their use, in prescribing the form and size of the vessels employed upon them, or in subjecting the ves sels to inspection and license. The power to regulate commerce comprehends the control for that purpose and to the extent necessary, of all navigable waters of the United States which are accessible from a State other than those in which they lie. For this purpose they are the public property of the nation, and sub ject to all the requisite legislation of Con In the case of Perry a. Haines, 191 S. 17, the same court decided that admiralty jurisdiction extends to cases of maritime liens upon vessels navigating the Erie Canal, as that formed part of a navigable highway for inter state commerce between Lake Erse and the ocean. Thus artificial as well as natural navi
gable waters are being recognized as public waters in the sense in which Bracton used that term in the rule th2t publica two tint (Intuit Jfwgites et porha. Years ago the English courts decided that the river Severn was a public highway, and the courts of the United States have followed the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States heretofore stated in regard to public navigable waterways. An interior nation has a servitude along natural watercourses to reach the highway of nations. known as jar trait:that, which is recognized by the law of nations. The right of transit over the Danube below the Iron Gates is secured n In the United States and in due rivers do not generally flow in foreign terrisory‘ so that it is not necessary as Invoke the doctrine of jots transits's, except in a few eases, as along the Richelku and lower Saint Lawrence The Atlantic Coast. Maine.— The water ways of Maine include 240 miles of seacoast. with many bays imitating it and scores of islands strew. along it. The Saint Croix River on the east is the outlet of Grand Lakes. It foams part of the international boundary and is navigable from its month up to Calais. Its towage in 1917 was 61.096 tons. The Penobscot. Is 275 miles long and navigable to Bangor by lerge vessels. It is the outlet of several lakes In central Maine and flows into Penobscot Bay. 30 miles long and 15 miles wide. Its tonnage la 1917 was 340.198 tom. The Kennebec is 160 miles long and navigable to Augusta. It is the outlet of Moosehead Lake, which is 36 miles long and from 8 to 12 miles wide, and aavigat by pleasure steamers.
Kennebec has a channel 150 feet wide and from 18 to 16 feet deep up to Gardiner and thence a channel 125 feet wide and 11 feet deep lip to Augusta. The toanage on that river k 1917 was 123.855 tons. The Androscoggin River drains the famous Rangeley lakes and cher takes, and flows 200 miles into the Kenne bec near its mouth. It is navigable only in part and by river craft. Sebago Lake is 12 miles kag and 10 miles wide and navigable by small strainers.