NAVIGABLE WATERS. Those waters which afford a channel for useful commerce. The Montello, 20 Wall. (U. S.) 430, 22 L. Ed. 391.
The test by which the character of a stream as public or private is determined, is its navigability in fact ; Fulmer v. Williams, 122 Pa. 191, 15 Atl. 726, 1 L. R. A. 603, 9 Am. St. Rep. 88 ; State v. Club, 100 N. C. 477, 5 S. E. 411, 6 Am. St. Rep. 618.
In its technical sense, the term navigable, at common law, is only applied to the sea, to arms of the sea, and to rivers which flow and reflow with the tide,-in other words, to tide-waters, the bed or soil of which is the property of the crown. All other waters are, in this sense of the word, unnavigable, and are, prima facie, strictly private property ; but in England even such waters, if naviga ble in the popular sense of the term, are, ei ther of common right or by dedication, sub ject to the use of the public as navigable highways, the fee or soil remaining in the riparian proprietors; 20 C'. B. N. S. 1; Corn. v. Charlestown, 1 Pick. (Mass.) 180, 11 Am. Dec. 161.
The rule of the common law, by which the ebb and flow of the tide has been made the criterion of navigability, has never been adopted in any of the 'United States, or, if adopted, it has been in a form modified and improved to fit the condition of the country and the wants of its inhabitants. According to the rule administered in the courts of this country, all rivers which are found "of suffi cient capacity to float the products of the mines, the forests, or the tillage of the coun try through which they flow, to market ;" Browne v. Scofield, 8 Barb. (N. Y.) 239 ; Har rison v. Fite, 148 Fed. 781, 78 C. C. A. 447; or which are capable of use "for the floating of vessels, boats, rafts, or logs"; Brown v. Chadbourne, 31 Me. 9, 50 Am. Dec. 641; Smart v. Lumber Co., 103 Me. 37, 68 Atl. 527, 14 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1083 ; Hot Springs L. & Mfg. Co., 106 Va. 176, 55 S. E. 580, 9 L. R. A. (N. S.) 894 (but see American River W. Co. v. Amsden, 6 Cal. 443 ; Haines v. Hall, 17 Or. 165, 20 Pac. 831, 3 L. R. A. 609 ; Spo
kane Mill Co. v. Post, 50 Fed. 429 ; Falls Mfg. Co. v. Imp. Co., 87 Wis. 134, 58 N. W. 257; are subject to the free and unobstruct ed navigation of the public, independent of usage or of legislation ; Treat v. Lord, 42 Me. 552, 66 Am. Dec. 298; Morgan v. King, 18 Barb. (N. Y.) 277; Homochitto River Com'rs v. Withers, 29 Miss. 21, 64 Am. Dec. 126. See Gerrish v. Brown, 51 Me. 256, 81 Am. Dec. 569 ; Olson v. Merrill, 42 Wis. 203; Escanaba Co. v. Chicago, 107 U. S. 682, 2 Sup. Ct. 185, 27 L. Ed. 442. Water navigable for pleasure boating must be regarded as navigable; Attorney General v. Woods, 108 Mass. 436, 11 Am. Rep. 380 ; but the mere capacity to pass in a boat of any Size, how ever small, from one stream or rivulet to another, is not sufficient to constitute a navi gable river of the United States ; Leovy v. U. S., 177 U. S. 621, 20 Sup. Ct. 797, 44 L. Ed. 914. To make a stream a highway it must at least be navigable or floatable in its natural state at ordinary recurring winter freshets long enough to make it useful for some purpose of trade or agriculture; Banks v. Frazier, 111 Ky. 909, 64 S. W. 983 ; Harri son v. Fite, 148 Fed. 781, 78 C. C. A. 447; People v. Lumber Co., 107 Cal. 221, 40 Pac. 531, 48 Am. St. Rep. 125 ; Kamm v. Nor mand, 50 Or. 9, 91 Pac. 448, 11 L. R. A. (N. S.) 290, 126 Am. St. Rep. 698; mere ability to catch fish in a body of water does not make it navigable ; Bolsa Land Co. v. Bur dick, 151 Cal. 254, 90 Pac. 532, 12 L. R. A. (N. S.) 275.
Navigable streams are highways ; Attorney General v. Woods, 108 Mass. 436, 11 Am. Rep. 380; Lamprey v. State, 52 Minn. 181, 53 N. W. 1139, 18 L. R. A. 670, 38 'Am. St. Rep. 541; Grand Rapids v. Powers, 89 Mich. 94, 50 N. W. 661, 14 L. R. A. 498, 28 Am. St. Rep. 276 ; a navigable stream is not a highway in the sense that that word is used in the constitution of South Carolina, forbid ding the enactment of local or special laws to lay out, open, alter or work roads or high ways ; Manigault v. Springs, 199 U. S. 473, 26 Sup. Ct. 127, 50 L. Ed. 274.