THE LAWS OF ANGLING; 



only apply it to the case of the water in a river; whieli 

 is so constantly passing from the soil of one to another, 

 that no man can, in strictness, be said to go twice to 

 the same river : and yet, by a grant of any given quan- 

 tity of land covered with water , which is the only legal 

 designation of a river, not only a certain tract of the 

 river, but the fish contained in it, shall pass. See CoJce 

 en Littleton, 4. a. 



In the Register ) a very ancient law-book, we find 

 two writs relating to fish ; the one, for the unlawful 

 taking of fish in a sever al<-fisJiert/, said the other, in 

 a free-Jtshery. And of these, in their order. 



A several^fishery, is that which a man is entitled to, 

 in respect of his bein<* the owner of the soil ; and is 

 what no one can have in tjic land of another, unless by 

 special grant or prescription. And whoever shall fish 

 in such a several-fishery, without a licence, is liable to 

 an action of trespass ; in which the plaintiff 'may well 

 demand, " Wherefore, in the plaintiff's several-fishery 

 " the defendant was fishing, and his fishes took," $c. 

 for though the fish be ferce naturd, yet being taken 

 in the water of the owner of the river, they arc said to 

 be his fish, without saying, in his soil or water, 3d 

 Croke's Reports^ 553, Child and GreenhiWs case : But 

 he must set forth the nature and number of the fisii 

 taken, 5 Coke's Reports, 35. Planter's case, and 3d 

 Coke 18. 



A free-fishery is a right to take fish in the water and 

 soil of another, and is derived out of a several-fishery. 

 If one seized of a river, grants, without including tin 

 soil, a several-fishery, ror, which amounts to no mor 

 than^that, his wa(er, a right of fishing passes, and 

 nothing else. Plowden's Commentary , 154, b. Coke 

 on Littleton, 4. b. and the word several^ in such case, 

 is synonymous with so/e, and that in so strict a sense, 

 that by such a grant not only strangers, but even the 

 owner of the soil, is excluded from fishing there. Co. 

 Litt. 122. a. And, further, where one prescribes to 

 have a several- fishery in a water, which prescription, 

 always, supposes a grant precedent, the owner of the 



