PROFIT A PRENDRE. The right to take soil, gravel, minerals, and the like from the land of another. An interest in the estate. Black v. Min. Co., 49 Fed. 549; Washb. Easem. 11. This right may be the subject of a separate grant; Engel v. Ayer, 85 Me. 448, 27 Atl. 352. It is an interest in the es tate; Pierce v. Keator, 70 N. Y. 419, 26 Am. Rep. 612.
Profit d prendre is a peculiar species of easements. It is "the right to take some thing which is the produce of the land." It is in its nature an incorporeal right incapa ble of livery, though it is imposed upon cor poreal or tangible property: It may be appurtenant to a dominant tenement, in the nature of an easement, or it may be a right in gross. It may be held apart from the possession of land, and differs therein from an easement, which requires a dominant ten ement for its existence. When attached to other LIMd it is in the nature of an ease ment ; when not so attached it cannot proper ly be said to be an easement, but is an in terest or estate iu the land itself. Jones, Easements § 49. But it is said that it is not, strictly speaking, an easement; 1 Odgers, Com. L. 25.
The right can be acquired only by grant or prescription. Such a right in the soil of another cannot be claimed by custom.
Thus a claim by the inhabitants of a town ship upon the land of another to take sand, etc., from the seashore, is without founda tion;15 C. B. N. S. 240; Nudd v. Hobbs, 17 N. H. 524.
The privilege of watering cattle at a pond or brook or of taking the water for domestic purposes is an easement and not a profit a prendre; 5 Ad. & El. 758; the right to take seaweed from the shores is a right to a profit in the soil ; Hill v. Lord, 48 Me. 100; and so is the right to take coal or any mineral from the land of another ; Huff v. McCauley, 53 Pa. 206, 91 Am. Dec. 203; and so is a right to use lands of another to cut grass, for pasturage, for hunting, or fishing ; Jones, Easements 57; so is the right to take and kill game on land or water; 9 Q. B. D. 315.
The right to profit d prendre acquired by grant or prescription as appurtenant to cer tain lands cannot be used as a right in gross by one not holding any connection with the land; 12 C. B. N. S. 91.
Profit d Rendre may be prescribed for in gross in fee; whether a profit d pren dre can be is not so clear ; Tinicum Fishing Co. v. Carter, 61 Pa. 21, 37, 100 Am. Dec. 597.
See EASEMENTS; A PRENDRE.