Opinion of the Court. the right to cut her loose, if necessary to preserve the pier from destruction or injury. 1 Black, 33, 34. There can be no doubt of the correctness of that decision; for, even if the pier had been unlawfully erected by the defendants as against the State, the plaintiffs had no right to pull it down or injure it, and upon the facts of the case were mere trespassers upon the defendants' possession. Linthicum v. Ray, 9 Wall. 241; Wetmore v. Brooklyn Gaslight Co., 42 N. Y. 384; Harrington v. Edwards, 17 Wisconsin, 604; Johnson v. Barret, Aleyn, 10, 11. In Railroad Co. v. Schurmeir, the plaintiff claimed title to lots in a block in the city of St. Paul and State of Minnesota under a patent from the United States of a fractional section, bounded on one side by the Mississippi River. At the place in question there was a small island, lying along the shore of the river, about four feet lower than the mainland, and separated from it by a channel or slough twenty-eight feet wide, in which at very low water there was no current, and very little water, and that standing in pools; at a medium stage of the water the island was not covered, and there was a current or flow through the channel or slough; and at very high water the island was submerged. In the original government survey, the meander lines were run along the mainland of the shore, the quantity of land was estimated accordingly, and the island and intervening space were not shown or mentioned. That island and space were afterwards filled up by the city as a landing place, and were claimed by the railroad company under a subsequent survey and grant from the United States. The island, therefore, was connected with the mainland by a space substantially uncovered at low water; and the improvements complained of did not extend beyond high water mark of the island. The question in controversy was whether the plaintiff's patent was limited by the main shore, or extended to the outside of the island. The Supreme Court of Minnesota held that, by the law of Minnesota, land bounded by a navigable river extended to low water mark, at least, if not to the thread of the river; and that the plaintiff's title therefore extended to the water's edge at low Opinion of the Court. water mark and included the island, and gave judgment for the plaintiff. 10 Minnesota, 82. This court affirmed the judgment, saying: "Express decision of the Supreme Court of the State was, that the river, in this case, and not the meander line, is the west boundary of the lot, and in that conclusion of the state court we entirely concur. Meander lines are run in surveying fractional portions of the public lands bordering upon navigable rivers, not as boundaries of the tract, but for the purpose of defining the sinuosities of the banks of the stream, and as the means of ascertaining the quantity of land in the fraction subject to sale, and which is to be paid for by the purchaser. In preparing the official plat from the field notes, the meander line is represented as the border line of the stream, and shows, to a demonstration, that the watercourse, and not the meander line as actually run on the land, is the boundary." 7 Wall. 286, 287. The court also expressed an unhesitating opinion that "Congress, in making a distinction between streams navigable and those not navigable, intended to provide that the common law rules of riparian ownership should apply to lands bordering on the latter, but that the title to lands bordering on navigable streams should stop at the stream, and that all such streams should be deemed to be and remain public highways." And the court treated it as too plain for discussion, that the island, separated from the mainland only by a depression in which at low water there was no continuous flow or line of water, was included in the first survey, and therefore not affected by the subsequent survey. 7 Wall. 288, 289. In Yates v. Milwaukee, the material facts appear by the report to have been as follows: The owner of a lot fronting on a river in the city of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin had built, upon land covered by water of no use for the purpose of navigation, a wharf extending to the navigable channel of the river. There was no evidence that the wharf was an obstruction to navigation, or was in any sense a nuisance. The city council afterwards, under a statute of the State, enacted before the wharf was built, authorizing the city council to establish dock and wharf lines upon the banks of the Opinion of the Court. river, to restrain and prevent encroachments upon and obstructions to the river, and to cause the river to be dredged, passed an ordinance declaring this wharf to be an obstruction to navigation and a nuisance, and ordering it to be abated. The point adjudged was that the mere declaration of the city council that the wharf already built and owned by the plaintiff was a nuisance did not make it such, or subject it to be removed by authority of the city. It was recognized in the opinion that by the law of Wisconsin, established by the decisions of its Supreme Court, the title of the owner of land bounded by a navigable river extended to the centre of the stream, subject, of course, to the public right of navigation. Jones v. Pettibone, 2 Wisconsin, 308; Walker v. Shepardson, 2 Wisconsin, 384, and 4 Wisconsin, 486; Mariner v. Schulte, 13 Wisconsin, 692; Arnold v. Elmore, 16 Wisconsin, 536. See also Olson v. Merrill, 42 Wisconsin, 203; Norcross v. Griffiths, 65 Wisconsin, 599. And the only decision of that court, which this court considered itself not bound to follow, was Yates v. Judd, 18 Wisconsin, 118, upon the question of fact whether certain evidence was sufficient to prove a dedication to the public. 10 Wall. 504-506. VII. The later judgments of this court clearly establish that the title and rights of riparian or littoral proprietors in the soil below high water mark of navigable waters are governed by the local laws of the several States, subject, of course, to the rights granted to the United States by the Constitution. In Weber v. Harbor Commissioners, above cited, Mr. Justice Field, in delivering judgment, while recognizing the correctness of the doctrine "that a riparian proprietor, whose land is bounded by a navigable stream, has the right of access to the navigable part of the stream in front of his land, and to construct a wharf or pier projecting into the stream, for his own use, or the use of others, subject to such general rules and regulations as the legislature may prescribe for the protection of the public," and admitting that in several of the States, by general legislation or immemorial usage, the proprietor of land bounded by the shore of the sea, or of an arm of the sea, has a right to wharf out to the point where the waters are Opinion of the Court. navigable, said: "In the absence of such legislation or usage, however, the common law rule would govern the rights of the proprietor, at least in those States where the common law obtains. By that law, the title to the shore of the sea, and of the arms of the sea, and in the soils under tide waters is, in England, in the King, and, in this country, in the State. Any erection thereon without license is, therefore, deemed an encroachment upon the property of the sovereign, or, as it is termed in the language of the law, a purpresture, which he may remove at pleasure, whether it tends to obstruct navigation or otherwise." 18 Wall. 64, 65. In Atlee v. Packet Co., (1874,) 21 Wall. 389, which arose in Iowa in 1871, Mr. Justice Miller, in delivering judgment, after referring to Dutton v. Strong, Railroad Co. v. Schurmeir, and Yates v. Milwaukee, above cited, disclaimed laying down any invariable rule as to the extent to which wharves and landing places might be built out into navigable waters by private individuals or municipal corporations; and recognized that a State might, by its legislation, or by authority expressly or impliedly delegated to municipal governments, control the construction, erection and use of such wharves or landings, so as to secure their safety and usefulness, and to prevent their being obstructions to navigation. 21 Wall. 392, 393. And adjudged, following in this respect the opinion of the Circuit Court in 2 Dillon, 479, that a riparian proprietor had no right, without statutory authority, to build out piers into the Mississippi River as necessary parts of a boom to receive and retain logs until needed for sawing at his mill by the it was water side. In Railway Co. v. Renwick, (1880,) 102 U. S. 180, affirming the judgment of the Supreme Court of Iowa in 49 Iowa, 664, it was by virtue of an express statute passed by the legislature of Iowa in 1874, that the owner of a similar pier and boom recovered compensation for the obstruction of access to it from the river by the construction of a railroad in front of it. In Barney v. Keokuk, (1876,) 94 U. S. 324, the owner, under a grant from the United States, of two lots of land in Opinion of the Court. the city of Keokuk and State of Iowa, bounded by the Mississippi River, brought an action of ejectment against the city and several railroad companies and a steamboat company to recover possession of lands below high water mark in front of his lots, which the city, pursuant to statutes of the State, had filled up as a wharf and levee, and had permitted to be occupied by the railroads and landing places of those companies. The plaintiff's counsel relied on Dutton v. Strong, Railroad Co. v. Schurmeir and Yates v. Milwaukee, above cited. 94 U. S. 329, 331. But this court, affirming the judgment of the Circuit Court of the United States, held that the action could not be maintained; and Mr. Justice Bradley, in delivering judgment, summed up the law upon the subject with characteristic power and precision, saying: "It appears to be the settled law of that State that the title of the riparian proprietors on the banks of the Mississippi extends only to ordinary high water mark, and that the shore between high and low water mark, as well as the bed of the river, belongs to the State. This is also the common law with regard to navigable waters; although, in England, no waters are deemed navigable except those in which the tide ebbs and flows. In this country, as a general thing, all waters are deemed navigable which are really so; and especially is it true with regard to the Mississippi and its principal branches. The question as to the extent of the riparian title was elaborately discussed in the case of McManus v. Carmichael, 3 Iowa, 1. The above conclusion was reached, and has always been adhered to in that State. Haight v. Keokuk, 4 Iowa, 199; Tomlin v. Dubuque &c. Railroad, 32 Iowa, 106." "It is generally conceded that the riparian title attaches to subsequent accretions to the land, effected by the gradual and imperceptible operation of natural causes. But whether it attaches to land reclaimed by artificial means from the bed of the river, or to sudden accretions produced by unusual floods, is a question which each State decides for itself. By the common law, as before remarked, such additions to the land on navigable waters belong to the Crown; but, as the only waters recognized in |