368 THE LAWS OF ANGLINO. 



constantly passing from the soil of one to another, that 

 no roan can, in strictness, be said to go twice to the same 

 river ; and yet, by a grant of any given quantity 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 Coke *n 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 several fishery, and the other, in a free fishery, 

 And of these in their order. 



A several Fishery it that which a man is entitled to in 

 respect of his being the owner of the soil, and is what no 

 one can have in the 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 '< where- 

 fore in the plaintiffs several fishery the defendant was 

 fishing, and his fishes took," &c. for though the fish be 

 fer* naturd, yet being taken in the water of the owner of 

 the river, they are said to be At* fish, without saying in 

 his soil or water, 3d Coke'* Reports, 653. Child and 

 GreenhiWs case : but he must set forth the nature and 

 number of the fish taken, 6 Coke's Reports, 35. Playters 

 case, and 3d Coke IS. 



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 the soil, 

 a several fishery, or, which amounts to no more than 

 that, his water, a right of fishing passes, and nothing 

 else. Plowden's Commentary, 164, b. Coke on Little- 

 ton, 4 b. And the word several, in such case, is synony- 

 mous with sole, 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 fish- 



