BOOK III PART II
naturally belong as an accession to the propri-
etors of the surrounding continent. These have
properly no more bond or union with the land,
than the pacific ocean would have; but having
an union in the fancy, and being at the same
time inferior, they are of course regarded as an
accession.
The property of rivers, by the laws of most
nations, and by the natural turn of our thought,
Is attributed to the proprietors of their banks,
excepting such vast rivers as the Rhine or the
Danube, which seem too large to the imagina-
tion to follow as an accession the property of
the neighbouring fields. Yet even these rivers
are considered as the property of that nation,
thro’ whose dominions they run; the idea of a
nation being of a suitable bulk to correspond
with them, and bear them such a relation in the