16. But fowls and geese are not naturally wild, which we may learn from there being particular kinds of fowls and geese which we term wild. And, therefore, if your geese or fowls should be frightened, and take flight, they are still regarded as yours wherever they may be, although you may have lost sight of them; and whoever detains such animals with a view to his own profit, commits a theft.
17. The things we take from our enemies become immediately ours by the law of nations, so that even freemen thus become our slaves; but if they afterwards escape from us, and return to their own people, they regain their former condition.
18. Precious stones, gems, and other things found upon the seashore become immediately, by natural law, the property of the finder.
19. All that is born of animals of which you are the owner, becomes by the same law your property.
Alluvion is an imperceptible increase
20. Moreover, the alluvial soil added by a river to your land becomes yours by the law of nations. Alluvion is an imperceptible increase; and that is added so gradually that no one can perceive how much is added at any one moment of time.
21. But if the violence of a river should bear away a portion of your land and unite it to the land of your neighbor, it undoubtedly still continues yours. If, however, it remains for long united to your neighbor’s land, and the trees, which it swept away with it, take root in his ground, these trees from that time become part of your neighbor’s estate.
22. When an island is formed in the sea, which rarely happens, it is the property of the first occupant; for before occupation, it belongs to no one. But when an island is formed in a river, which frequently happens, if it is placed in the middle of it, it belongs in common to those who possess the lands near the banks on each side of the river, in proportion to the extent of each man’s estate adjoining the banks.
But, if the island is nearer to one side than the other, it belongs to those persons only who possess lands contiguous to the bank on that side. If a river divides itself and afterwards unites again, thus giving to any one’s land the form of an island, the land still continues to belong to the person to whom it belonged before.
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