PUBLIC WATER RIGHTS, or the right of the pub lic at large to use and enjoy private waters, may exist either in waters naturally private, as in non-navigable streams, or dn waters which have become subjected to private ownership, as oc casionally happens in the seashore or in navi gable streams. It is a general rule of the common law that a private stream which is adapted to navigation, even though it be only for floating logs, is subject to the public use for that pur pose. This right of the public is strictly lim ited, however, and does not extend to the taking of fish or cutting ice, or even of landing,. but only to the purpose of passing and repassing in a suitable boat, or, as said above. of floating logs at appropriate seasons of the year. The right of fishing, in particular. is an incident of the ownership of the bed of a stream or pond, and no length of user will vest that right in a com munity or in the public at large. The only ex ception to this rule appears in the rights en joyed by the public in the seashore in the rare cases where the latter has become-private prop erty. The public ownership of the seashore. i.e. of the strip between low and high water mark to which reference was made above, may be divested by grant from the Crown in England.
by legislative act or charter in the United States, in favor of a private individual. In a few of the United States, indeed (Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts. and Virginia), the owner of the upland owns the shore. But in all these ease.: the private owner takes the shore subject to certain immemorial rights of the pub lie, which are deemed of so great importance as to outweigh the consideration of private owner ship. The most important of these rights are the right of the public to use the shore at low water as a highway for passing and repassing, to land, dry nets, and dig for shell-fish there, and, when the shore is covered by the tide, to pass in boats and to fish therein. These rights are not inalienable, however. and may be released by the Crown or State. acting in behalf of the pub lic, and vested exclusively in the private owner of the shore. It is on this principle that the numerous and important exclusive rights of sea fishing. and many of the rights of erecting piers, bulkheads, and breakwaters, and the like, have become vested in private persons or cor porations in the United States. Consult Gould,