WHAT A DEED CONVEYS. 151 



to the owner of the upland, or to the public. By force of a 

 very early law in JNIassachusetts (contrary to that of most 

 other seacoast States), if a deed describes the farm as bound- 

 ing " by the sea," " by the salt water," " bay, harbor, cove, 

 creek, stream, river, or tide-water," it generally includes the 

 whole flats down to low-water mark (if not over a hundred 

 rods), including the exclusive right to gather the seaweed, 

 or other such things washed up thereon by the tide. On 

 the other hand, if the deed bounds "by the shore," "beach, 

 strand, flats, marsh, or cliff," it extends only to high-water 

 mark, and does not give any right to the flats (6 Mass. 435). 

 Wliile yet again (such are the niceties of the law), if 

 the phrase of the deed is " to the beach or sea," " to the sea- 

 shore," " to the sea or flats," the grantee owns down to low- 

 water mark, flats and all (5 Gray, 328). In view of such 

 nice and subtle distinctions (though founded on better 

 reasons than are apparent) one is tempted to exclaim with 

 the Earl of Warwick, in Shakspeare's Henry VI. : — 



"Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch ; 

 Between two dogs, whicli hath the deeper mouth ; 

 Between two horses, which doth bear him best ; 

 Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye : 

 I have, perhaps, some shallow spirit of judgment, — 

 But in these nice sharp quillets of the law, 

 Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw." 



WHAT A DEED OF A FARM INCLUDES. 



Of course every one knows it conveys all the fences stand- 

 ing on the farm (4 Iowa, 146 ; 43 N. H. 306) ; but all might 

 not think it also included the fencing-stuff, posts, rails, &c., 

 which had once been used in the fence, but had been taken 

 down and piled up for future use again in the same place 

 (2 Hill, 142). But new fencing-material just bought, and 

 never attached to the soil, would not pass (16 111. 480 ; 3 

 Iowa, 220 ; 2 Scam. 283). So piles of hop-poles stored away, 

 if once used on the land, have been considered a part of it 

 (1 Kernan, 123) ; but loose boards or scaffold-poles merely 

 laid across the beams of the barn, and never fastened to it, 

 would not be, and the seller of the farm might take them 

 away (1 Lans. 219). Standing trees, of course, also pass as 

 part of the land; so do trees blown or cut down,' and still left 



