38 Thirtieth Annual Meeting 



And the officers are not trespassers for so doing, id. 



YIII. The Bight of the Riparian Owner to Fish on Waters 

 covering his oivn Soil. — We have one vexed question in connec- 

 tion with the stocking of streams, by state instrumentalities. At 

 the Common Law as laid down in many American cases the 

 riparian owner (whose right in fee to the soil extends to the 

 tliread of the stream, where the stream is his boundary, and to 

 the whole bed of the stream when he owns on both sides), the 

 right of fishery is in him exclusivel}^, and no stranger can fish in 

 the stream against his will without being a trespasser. 



There are not wanting numerous authorities holding this 

 view, even as respects navigable streams, in those states which 

 hold that the riparian owner owns the soil under the water sub- 

 ject to the public right of navigation. It was held in Wisconsin 

 that the owner of both banks of a stream owns the bed, and the 

 owner of one bank owns to the center or thread of the stream,, 

 whether the stream is meandered or unraeandered. 



Jones V. Pettibone, 2 Wis. 208, 319 ; 



Mariner v. Schuette, 13 id. 692; 



Walker v. Shepardson, 4 id. 486 ; 



Arnold v. Elmore, 16 id. 509 ; 



Norcross v. Griffiths, 65 id. 599 ; 



Olsen V. Merrill, 42 id. 203 ; 



Janesville v. Carpenter, 77 id. 288 ; 



Barney v. Keokuk, 94 U. S. 324. 



Tlie right of fishing and fowling is in the owner of the soil 

 under the water. N"e-pee-nauk Club v. Wilson, 96 Wis. 290. 



This doctrine that the owner of the bank owns the soil under 

 the navigable stream does not obtain in many of the states. In 

 others including Wisconsin it has gotten unluckily a foot hold, 

 and is an embarrassment to the stocking of fish for the public 

 benefit. 



In Wisconsin, tlic ruk' of riparian ownershi}) of the soil car- 

 ries with it the exclusive riglit of fishing in the waters over such 

 soil has been overturned by the late case of Willow Eiver Club v. 

 Wade, 100 Wis. 86. The club leased the laiuls for a considerable 

 distance on hotli banlcs of the WilloAV Kiver, an unmeandered 

 trib\iiary ol' tlie Mississi])])i l^iver, which was in times of high 



