230 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 



its effect would be to interfere with the provisions of Chapter 

 711 of the Acts of 1906, and may have to be finally determined 

 by the courts. 



PRIVATE OWNERSHIP AND RIPARIAN RIGHTS. 



One of the questions of considerable interest to land owners 

 bordering on the waters of the State is as to the extent of their 

 rights on the shore. Section 107 of this Act provides that it is 

 not intended to apply to any lands owned by private persons 

 the bounds of which extend below low water into and beneath 

 the waters of the State, it being the intention of the Act to 

 protect the rights- of land owners under old grants from the 

 State prior to 1862 who may have acquired the right from the 

 State to any land covered by navigable water. It is believed 

 that the extent of this private ownership is very small, but 

 whenever it does exist and the title can be established, the 

 rights of the owner are exempt from the operation of this Bill 

 to the extent of their holdings. Chapter 129 of the Acts of 

 1862 expressly prohibits the right to issue any patent to 

 land covered by navigable water, and the rights of land 

 owners bordering on the shore of the navigable waters of the 

 State, with the possible exception above referred to, extend to 

 high-water mark and the land covered by water within the ebb 

 and flow of tide to high- water mark belongs to the State and is 

 the subject of lease under the provisions of this act. 



Another question of interest akin to this is where a tract of 

 land lies adjacent or contiguous to a navigable river or water, 

 as to the interest of the owner of the land in any change in the 

 shore line and the rule adopted by the Commission which is in 

 conformity with the decision of the Courts is that any increase 

 of soil gained from the sea either by alluvion, the washing up 

 of sand and earth so as in time to make terra firma, or by dere- 

 liction, as where the sea shrinks back below the usual water 

 mark, in these cases it is held that if this gain be little and little 

 by small and imperceptible degrees it shall go to the owner of 

 the land adjoining, and that the ownership of land may be lost by 

 erosion or submergence, the one consisting of the gradual eating 

 away of the soil by the operation of currents and tides and the 



