TIDE. The ebb and flow of the sea.
2. Arms of the sea, bays, creeks, coves, or rivers, where the tide ebbs
and flows, are public, and all persons may use the same for the purposes of
navigation and for fishing, unless restrained by law. To give these rights
at common law, the tide must ebb and flow: the flowing of the waters of a
lake into a river, and their reflowing, being not the flux and reflux of the
tides, but mere occasional and rare instances of a swell in the lake, and a
setting up of the waters into the river, and the subsiding of such swells,
is not to be considered an ebb and flow of the tide, so as to constitute a
river technically navigable. 20 John. R. 98. See 17 John. R. 195; 2 Conn. R.
481.
3. In Pennsylvania, the common law principle, that the flux and reflux
of the tide ascertain the character of the river, has been rejected. 2 Binn.
R. 475. Vide Arm of the sea; Navigable river; Sea shore.