GARTH. In English Law. A yard; a homestead in the north of England. Cowell. A dam or wear. Id.
GAS. An aeriform fluid, used for illumi nating purposes and for fuel.
From a legal point of view it is to be con sidered with respect to the companies by which it is usually furnished, their status and obligations as affected by the nature of the business; and also whether the gas fur nished by them is manufactured or natural.
Nature of the business. The business is not an ordinary one in which any person may engage as of common right, but a fran chise of a public nature which, in the ab sence of constitutional restriction, may be granted by the legislature; New Orleans Gaslight Co. v. Light Co., 115 U. S. 650, 6 Sup. Ct. 252, 29 L. Ed. 516; Louisville Gas Co. v. Gaslight Co., 115 U. S. 683, 6 Sup. Ct. 265, 29 L. Ed. 510; Grand Rapids E. L. & P. Co. v. Gas Co., 33 Fed. 659; City of New port v. Light Co., 84 Ky. 166. A grant of the right to lay pipes is valid, but it is a franchise to be strictly construed, and is void if the conditions are not complied with; City of Newport v. Light Co., 84 Ky. 166. Such a company cannot sell, lease, or assign its corporate privileges without consent of the legislature ; Brunswick Gaslight Co. v. Light Co., 85 Me. 532, 27 Atl. 525, 35 Am. St. Rep. 385..
They are not, however, always treated as strictly public corporations, but in some cas es such a company is said to be simply "a private manufacturing corporation which furnishes gas to individuals as agreed. This of itself does not make it a public corpora tion ;" In re New York Cent. & H. R. R. Co. v. Gaslight Co., 63 N. Y. 326. A company fur nishing gas to a municipality under con tract is not performing such public service as Cu exempt it from ordinary taxation ; New as to Light Co. v. City of Newport (Ky.) 20 S. W. 434.
A gas company having power to manufac ture and sell gas has an implied power to make all contracts necessary to that end; St. Louis Gaslight Co. v. St. Louis, 86 Mo. 495.
Natural Gas. The gas obtained from wells in coal and oil regions, and used for lighting and heating. In nature and, character, such gas has been termed "a mineral with pecu liar attributes which require the application of precedents arising out of ordinary miner al rights, with more careful consideration of the principles involved than of the mere decisions. . . . Water and oil, and still
more strongly, gas, may be classed by them selves, if the analogy be not too fanciful, as minerals ferw natures. In common with ani mals, and unlike other minerals,• they have the power and the tendency to escape with out the volition of the owner. Their 'fugi tive and wandering existence within the limits of a particular tract is uncertain ;' (per Agnew, C. J. in Brown v. Vandergrift, 80 Pa. 147). They belong to the owner of the land, and are part of it, so long as they are on or in it, and are subject to his con trol; but when they escape, .and go into oth er land, or come under another's control, the title of the former owner is gone. Posses sion of the land, therefore, .is not necessarily possession of the gas. If an adjoining, or even a distant, owner, drills his own land, and taps your gas, so that it comes into his well and under his control, it is no longer yours, but his." Per Mitchell, J., in West moreland, etc., N. Gas Co. v. De Witt, 130 Pa. 235, 18 Atl. 724, 5 L. R. A. 731.
Under a lease of land for the sole purpose of drilling and operating for oil and gas, the lessee's right in the surface of the land is in the nature of an easement of entry and ex amination, with a right of possession where the particular place of operation is selected, and the easement • of ingress and egress, transportation and storage ; id.
Whether the words "other valuable vola tile substance" in a lease when they were used with petroleum, rock, or carbon oil, will include gas is a question for a jury, as the words have no settled meaning; Ford .v. Bu-1 chanan, 111 Pa. 31, 2 Atl. 339. The words oil and gas in a lease have been held not synonymous ; Truby v. Palmer (Pa.) 6 Atl. 74; it' is a fuel ; Citizens' Gas & Min. Co. v. Town of Elwood, 114 Ind. 338, 16 N. E. 624; but it has been held that a company incor porated for supplying heat cannot also fur nish natural gas; Emerson 'v. Corn., 108 Pa. 126.