Also spelled bature.
In the 1897 Bouvier Law Dictionary, the term is spelled batture and is defined as:
"An elevation of the bed of a river under the surface of the water; but it is sometimes used to signify the same elevation when it has risen above the surface."
The term is used in reference to the Mississippi River to describe portions of that river which are exposed during dry season.
In Queens County v Cooper, Justice Harrison of the New Brunswick Supreme Court, sitting in appeal, adopted these words to define batture:
"An elevation of the bed of a river under the surface of the water and sometimes the elevation of the bank when it has emerged from the water or is as high as the adjoining land; in the latter sense it is synonymous with alluvion.
"Every owner of property fronting on a river has a right to the batture in front of his property as soon as the soil becomes sufficiently elevated to be susceptible of private ownership, subject only to the public use of so much of it as may be necessary for public highways or streets or for public access to the water."
REFERENCES:
- Queens County v Cooper 18 MPR 317 and also at (1946) 1 DLR 248