And if any man hold a tract of land by the side of a creek or
branch, and it be described to begin at a marked tree by the side
of the said creek, river, or branch, and at the last is on that side
to be bounded with the said creek, river, or branch, but it is expressed
from the said marked tree to run up or down the said
creek, river, or branch, a certain number of perches, or a certain
course, which course declines from the water side, and runs into
the land, and no marked tree appointed for it to end at, in all such
like cases, the owners of the said land shall reverse his last line,
viz. as suppose the first course is north, one hundred perches, to
the branch, creek, or river, and the other west, one hundred and
sixty perches, and then south, one hundred perches, and then east,
or on a straight line to the first marked tree, he shall run from his
first tree west, one hundred and sixty perches, and then south one
hundred perches, and then east unto the said creek, river, or branch,
and where the said east line intersects or falls into the water, it shall
determine his bounds, and he shall hold from that intersection, by
the water side to the first tree; but in this case, or any cases parallel,
if fifty per cent. will not intersect the branch, creek, or river,
then the precise lines and course to be the bounds thereof, and
the reversing of lines shall determine the bounds when the lines by the
water side slants over the creek, river, or branch, and in that case
the creek, river or branch, shall be the bounds of such tract, and it
shall not pass over, as in the second, third, and fourth example is
demonstrated; and the reason why fifty per cent. is allowed to reach
the creek, river, or branch, that if more is, there will be no coherence
between the creek and course.  And if a tract be described
to lie on a certain side a creek, river, or branch, and begin at a
marked tree and run a certain course, as suppose north one hundred
perches up or down the said creek or river, to another marked
tree by the river side, which second marked tree is known, and
really stands by the water side, and make the breadth of the land
within fifty per cent. there the second line, supposing east, shall be
drawn from the second tree the certain number of perches, supposing
one hundred and sixty, and from the end thereof south, till
it intersect a line drawn also east from the first tree, (though the
said east line last mentioned be more or less, in this case, than fifty
per cent. over or under,) and from that intersection, a line drawn
west, to the first tree, the water, the west and the south line shall
be the bounds of such tract, and all such tracts in cases parallel;
because that generally takers up of such backward land have so
allowed the tracts fronting the river to lie, and that with good reason,
and as for the reasonableness of it, it cannot be otherwise enacted,
so if it should be otherwise enacted, it would make a general
confusion in all backward lands, bounded first upon the frontier
tracts, and then upon another.  And in the cases aforesaid,
although there be a great variation betwixt the prescribed course
and the real course from the first to the second tree, yet all the
land betwixt the said trees, by its general bounding on the water,
shall be adjudged part of the said tracts, and afterwards from the
second tree it shall be determined by lines as aforesaid, as in the
fifth and sixth example.  And if a tract of land be laid out for a
certain number of acres on such courses, which, though the length
of the lines, yet the acuteness of the angles, will not make the certain