32
THE FORESHORE
being liable in damages. In Connecticut the rights and privileges of littoral proprietors extend to low-water mark, subject to State regulation. In New York the landowner has no right of property between high-water and low-water mark. He has no right to reclaim, as against the State, and is not entitled to compensation should a railway be constructed along the waterfront of his premises. In New Jersey the State owns the shore, and the littoral proprietors have no legal right to carry out works upon it. The State may groyne any portion of the shore without making compensation to the owners of the adjacent lands, but when shore lands are reclaimed they become the property of the littoral proprietor, and cannot be taken for public usage or granted by the State to other persons without compensation. In Virginia the littoral owner possesses exclusive rights and privileges to low-water mark, and, if not interfering with navigation, may build wharves below low-water mark. In North Carolina the State can only grant land under navigable water for wharf purposes, but for this purpose the littoral owner may carry his works “as far as deep water”, and they then become his absolute property. In South Carolina the State owns the land under navigable waters by common law. In Florida the shore is vested by statute in the littoral owners. In Louisiana strips of land near the mouth of the Mississippi, including land not submerged but subject to overflow, belong to the State. In California private ownership extends to high-water mark, the shore being the property of the State; and in Oregon similar rights exist to those in the State of Florida.
   Turning aside from legal subtleties, the foreshore constitutes to the engineer a terrain generally covered by a travelling medium of defence, consisting of sand, shingle, or both. In its rear may be sea-walls, cliffs, or embankments. From the slope of the sea marge, and the nature of the material with which it is clothed, the degree of its storm exposure may be safely surmised. If the shore be flat, consisting of wide stretches of muddy sand, with or without a narrow fringe of shingle or stone along its landward frontage, it is safe to infer the absence of severe gale conditions. If, on the other hand, a foreshore con-