The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-20
THE MOOSE RIVER CASE.
Interesting Litigation VIII Stop Fores
obstruction in the Adirondncks

Interesting Litigation viii Stop Forest
obstruction in the Adirondaeks.
From the New York Mail and Express
What will long be known in legal
! parlance as the Moose river case
ends litigation which has lasted for
| years and establishes a precedent in
the law of riparian rights. The decis-
ION of the court of appeals in the case
OF William ;. De Camp against a lum-
Der company is important not only as
a precedent in law but because 1t will
put a stop to numbering operations in
certain parts of the Adirondacks where
these operations in the past have been
most destructive to the forest growth
This decision will do more to protect
the forests than dozen statutes aimed
at destructive numbering or timber
thieving.
Mr.. De Camp is the owner of town
ship of the John Brown tract in
Herkimer county. Through his land
runs the north branch of the Moose
river narrow stream which, when
flooded in the spring, has been the wa
ter highway by which millions OF feet
of logs have been fioated down to the
Moose river and then to the mills on
the Black river at Forestport. lum-
Der company few years ago began its
operations on tract at the head wa
ters of the north branch, and as usual
through the De Camp land This
right Mr., De Camp denied. He claimed
that. owning the banks of the stream
he owned also the land between the
banks. Nor was he content with the
earth, but he claimed the water over
the earth, and the sole right to catch
the fish which swan in the water
which flowed over his earth. He
claimed the right to arrest anglers
fishing in the water which was his dur
ing the period in which Ii was rushing
across his land, and assumed the right
To confiscatc the logs which were sent
down across his land by his private
water highway. He secured an in
junction against the lumber company
and carried the case np to the court of
appeals. which has just decided in his
favor by making the injunction perma-
nent.
The effect of the decision will be rad
ical and far-reaching. The result will
be that there will be no more timber
cutting on private lands unless they
lie near u railroad. or can be profitably
hauled TO market in the winter over
the snow. On state lands timber cut
ting is already prohibited by the con-
stitution, so that profitable Adirondack
numbering may be said to be practi-
eally at an end.
Ii is unfortunate, however, that the de-
cision could not have been modified
to permit the floating to
market of the hundreds of millions of
feet of logs already cut. skidded and
lying in the woods. This decision
dooms them to decay.
To sportsmen, too. the decision is a
most important one. IL will close to the
public many a stream which has long
been supposed to be common property.
Inder the court of appeals decision
however, an Individual or a corpora
tion, owning both shores of a stream
not n public highway. such as the
West Canada creek or the north or
south branches of the Moose owns the
water also and the sole right to fish in
1T. Any other person than the owner
has no right To paddle or wade through
the stream, and may be arrested as a
trespasser by the riparian owner. This
is n phase of the Moose river case
which hits thousands of Adirondack
ii shprmpn