Cornell Law Review Volume 16 Article 1 Issue 3 April 1931 Lands Under Water in New York William Shankland Andrews Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation William Shankland Andrews, Lands Under Water in New York, 16 Cornell L. Rev. 277 (1931) Available at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol16/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cornell Law Review by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CORNELL LAW QUARTERLY VOLUME XVI APRIL, 1931 NUMBER 3 LANDS UNDER WATER IN NEW YORK WILLIAM SHANKLAND ANDREWS* The question to be considered is the title of the beds of non-tidal streams, rivers, ponds andlakes. Isitinthestate, or is it in the riparian proprietors? Questions as to the Mohawk and the Hudson, to which special rules apply' and as to boundary lakes and rivers are omitted. The answer may have practical importance in questions of property rights. At least in streams not navigable in fact, the sole right to fisheries is in the owner of the soil beneath.2 Probably so as to navi- gable streams as well.3 Likewise, such owner has the right to shoot4 and the right to take ice,5 and to him belong sand, gravel and ore be- neath the surface 6 and newly formed islands.7 Again, in certain cases of reliction a determination of the title is important." Then also there is the right to erect dams and other structures on one's land.