SPHERE OF STATE GOVERNMENT jj 



Landowner's Rights to Wild Animals Found on Land 

 Covered by Water: Whether qualified property exists in 

 wild animals and fish found on lands covered by water and 

 in the water itself is a somewhat more difficult problem. 

 It is the general rule, to which there are exceptions, that 

 ownership of the soil under water carries with it the exclu- 

 sive right to hunt and fish in or upon that water. 8 * Equally 

 general and with an equal number of exceptions is the rule 

 that abutting riparian owners on a non-navigable stream 

 own the bed to the middle of the thread, 85 while on a navi- 

 gable stream only to high-water mark. 86 However, as the 

 United States Supreme Court said, 87 



It is presumed that title to the soil under navigable waters 

 within a state is in the state itself but the nature and rights of 

 the state and of abutting riparian owners in navigable waters 

 within the state and to the soil beneath are matters of local law 

 to be determined by statute and judicial decisions of the state. 



Even in the matter of determining navigability the states 

 have set up varying tests. In determining whether a stream 

 or lake is navigable within the meaning of the constitutional 

 principle of equality among the several states under which 

 the title to the bed of navigable waters passes to each state 

 upon its admission to the Union, the federal rule is fol- 



84 Illinois, Schulte v. Warren, 218 111. 108, 75 N. E. 783 (1905) ; New 

 York, Brook haven v. Strong, 60 N. Y. 56 (1875) ; Pennsylvania, Com. v. 

 Foster, 36 Pa. Super. 433 (1908) ; Michigan, Lincoln v. Davis, 53 Mich. 

 375, 19 N. W. 103 (1884). 



85 Holyoke Water Power Co. v. Lyman, 15 Wall. 500, 21 L. ed. 133 

 (1872). 



86 Massachusetts v. New York, 271 U. S. 65 (1925) ; United States v. 

 Holt State Bank, 270 U. S. 49 (1924) ; in a few states to low water mark, 

 Virginia, Greenleaf Johnson Lumber Co. v. United States, 204 Fed. 489 

 (1913). 



87 United States v. Holt State Bank, 270 U. S. 49, 46 S. Ct. 197 (1924). 



