from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
SEA SHORE, property. That space of land, on the border of the sea, which is
alternately covered and left dry, by the rising and falling of the tide or,
in other words, that space of land between high and low water mark. Hargr,
Tr. 12; 6 Mass. 435, 439; 1 Pick. 180, 182; 5 Day, 22.
2. Generally, the sea shore belongs to the public. Angell on Tide Wat.
34, 5; 3 Kent's Com. 347.
3. By the Roman law, the shore included the land as far as the greatest
wave extended in winter; est autem littus, maris, quatenus hibernus, fluctus
maximus excurrit. Inst. lib. 2, t. 1, s. 3. Littus publicum est eatenus qua
maxime fluctus exaestuat. Dig., lib, 50, t. 16, s. 112.
4. The Civil Code of Louisiana seems to have followed the law of the
Institutes and the Digest, for it enacts, art. 442, that the "sea shore is
that space, of land over which the waters of the sea are spread in the
highest water, during the winter season." Vide. 5 Rob. Adm. R. 182; Dougl.
425; 1 Halst. R. 1; 2 Roll. Ab. 170; Dyer, 326; 5 Co. 107; Bac. Ab., Courts
of Admiralty,, A; 1 Am. Law Mag. 76; 16 Pet. R. 234, 367 Ang. on Tide
Waters, Index, tit. Shore; 2 Bligh's N, S. 146; 5 M. & W. 327 Merl. Quest.
de Droit, mots Rivage de la Mer; Inst. 2, 1, 2; 22 Maine, R. 350. For the
law of Mass. vide Dane's Ab. c. 68, a 3, 4.