468 THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 



assigned the property in the creatures in question to 

 particular persons. Thus, to royal fish which are 

 Whales and Sturgeons the king is entitled, by his 

 prerogative,* : And the property of fish in rivers, or 

 at least, aright to take them, is, in many places, given 

 to corporations ; as, with us, the fishery of the river 

 Thames is granted to the City of London ; and the 

 Townsmen of Hungerford, in Berkshire, claim a right 

 of fishing in that part of the river Kennet, called their 

 common water, under a grant from John of Gaunt, 

 who, we may suppose, derived it from the Crownt : 

 But, in most instances, fish belong to the owner of the 

 soil. 



These principles being recognised, and property once 

 settled ; it is easy to see the necessity and the justice 

 of fencing it with positive laws. Accordingly, in this 

 country, JUDICIAL DETERMINATIONS have, from time 

 to time, been made, ascertaining the rights of persons 

 to fisheries ; and these, together with the several STA- 

 TUTES enacted to prevent the destruction offish, com- 

 pose tfie body of Laws relating to Fish and Fishing : 

 the former, by way of supplement to the foregoing 

 discourse, are here laid down ; and the latter will be re- 

 ferred to. 



The property which the Common Law gives, in 

 river-fish uncaught, is of that kind which is called 

 special, or qualified property ; which see defined by 

 Lord Coke, in his Reports > Part 7. Fo. 17. b. and is de- 

 rived out of the right to the place, or soil, where such 

 fish live : so that, supposing them, at any given in- 

 stant, to belong to one person whenever they resort to 

 the soil, or water, of another, they become his property, 

 and so in infinitum. 



And to prove that this notion of a fluctuating or 

 transitory property, is what the laws allows, we need 



* 7 Coke 1G. The Case of Swans. 



f The townsmen of Hungtrferd have a horn, holding about a quart, the 

 inscription whereon affirms it to have been given by John of Gaunt, 

 with the Rial-fishing (so it is therein expressed) in a certain part of the 

 river. Gibs. Camfcn> 106. 



