1332 LAND OFFICE. [ART. 34

1904, art. 54, sec. 46. 1888, art. 54, sec. 43. 1860, art. 54, sec. 36.
1785, ch. 66, sec. 7.

46. Any person holding lands and being in actual possession thereof
in this State, under a warrant and survey or under a patent granted by
the government of Pennsylvania before the divisional line between the
two States was fixed, shall be entitled to receive a patent for .such land
from the proper authorities of this State.

For a case dealing with an equitable interest held under a statute anal-
agous to this section, see Rowland v. Crawford, 7 H. & ,T. 52.

Ibid. sec. 47. 1888, art. 54, sec. 44. 1862, ch. 129, sec. 37.

47. The proprietor of land bounding on any of the navigable waters
of this State shall be entitled to all accretions to said land by the reces-
sion of said water, whether heretofore or hereafter formed or made by
natural causes or otherwise, in like manner and to like extent as such
right may or can be claimed by the proprietor of land bounding on
water not navigable.

The leaseholder under a lease made in 1850, acquired by virtue of the act
of 1745, ch. 9, the right to accretions, to the exclusion of the assignee of the
reversion. Williams v. Baker, 41 Md. 527.

This section held to have no application where a patent to land covered
by water was issued prior to its adoption. Dispute between such patentee
and riparian owner as to ownership of accretion. Linthicum v. Coan, 64
Md. 452. Cf. Day v. Day, 22 Md. 539; Patterson v. Gelston, 23 Md. 445.

As long as the water covers the adjacent soil, there is no accretion, and
hence this section has no application. Hess v. Muir, 05 Md. 596.

For cases dealing with the subject of this section prior to its adoption,
see Chapman v. Hoskins, 2 Md. Ch. 485. Ridgely v. Johnson, 1 BI. 316, note
(f); Giraud v. Hughes, 1 G. & J. 264; B. & O. R. R. v. Chase, 43 Md. 23.

Cited but not construed in Spencer v. Patten, 84 Md. 420; Hill v. United
States, 149 U. S. 593.
See notes to sec. 48.

Ibid. sec. 48. 1888, art. 54, sec. 45. 1862, ch. 129, sec. 38.

48. The proprietor of land bounding on any of the navigable waters
of this State shall be entitled to the exclusive right of making improve-
ments into the waters in front of his said land; such improvements
and other accretions as above provided for shall pass to the successive
owners of the land to which they are attached, as incident to their
respective estates. But no such improvement shall be so made as to
interfere with the navigation of the stream of water into which the
said improvement is made.

No patent ought to be issued which would destroy the rights of the
riparian owner under this section. The only restriction upon the latter's
rights is that set out in the last clause of this section—quaere, as to
whether the appellant could raise the question of the violation of such
restriction. Law applicable to owners along non-navigable streams has no
application to navigable streams. The title to improvements, when made,
may be severed from that of the mainland. How the Improvements may
be made. Goodsell v. Lawson. 42 Md. 370. See also, Western Maryland T.
R. Co. v. Baltimore, 106 Md. 568.

Improvements erected by an adjacent owner, or his tenant, under this
section, belong to such owner, although they extend further than the law
permits; while they may be abated by proper proceedings to the extent
that they are unlawful, the ownership can not be wrested from the propri-
etor. Ejectment against the United States government. The Edmondson
Island Case, 42 Fed. 15.