54 PATTERSON v. M'CAUSLAND.—3 BLAND.

such as a right of soil, alleged to be subject to two several kinds of
right of way, which, from the nature of things, must, in some modes
of exercising them, he brought into apparent collision with each
other; Ball v. Herbert, 3 T. R. 253; and an injunction has been
granted for the preservation of one of them, the Court will not con-
sider any act to be a violation of such injunction, that is a fair exer-
cise of another of the associated rights, and which leaves the right,
under the protection of the injunction, as large a scope, and as free
a range as it might have had when the injunction was served and
before the act complained of was done. The validity and extent
of the right, which, by the injunction, has been temporarily taken
under the special care of the Court; and of the other rights with
which it stands connected, are matters which can only be deter-
mined with propriety at the final hearing; until then, or so long
as the injunction is continued, they must be kept, as far as prac-
ticable, within their respective modes and lines of use, so as not
to be allowed, in any manner to thwart, overlay or obstruct that
claimed by the plaintiff.

In this case it could not be said, that the cuttings complained of
were not legitimate exercises of the rights of this body politic as
holders of the fee simple estate in the land, and as owners of the
profits of this highway or canal which they are bound to repair
and keep in a proper state for navigation; unless it were shewn,
that the plaintiff's right of way, in that condition in which it was
found by the injunction, had been thereby in some form or other
diminished or substantially impaired. And that, I am of opinion,
has neither been admitted by the answers to the petition, on which
the attachments were awarded, nor shewn, by the affidavits which
have been introduced and read by consent.

* Whereupon it is ordered, that the said defendants, the
60 Proprietors of the Susquehanna Canal, and their agents,
the said John W. Thomas and James Galloway, be and they are
hereby discharged from the said attachments with their costs to
be taxed by the register.

PATTERSON v. M'CAUSLAND.
PRESUMPTIONS AS TO THE COURSE OF NATURE.

The law respects the regular course of nature as well in regard to the revo-
lutions of the seasons, as in relation to animals and vegetables.

A man may have an estate of inheritance in land so long as such a tree shall
grow.

The oak is said to live more than a thousand years; but the average tern
of the life of most forest trees seems to be indefinite; although it ii
evident, that all of them are subject to the law of mortality.