Note 417 — Chapter XX · THE LAW OF PROPERTY.

Unlike a chattel, a piece of land has no natural boundaries. Its separation from the adjoining land is purely arbitrary and artificial, and it is capable of subdivision and separate ownership to any extent that may be desired. The lines of subdivision are usually vertical, but may be horizontal. The surface of land, for example, may belong to one man and the substrata to another. Each story of a house may have a different owner. In The Midland Railway Coy. v. Wright, (1901) 1 Ch. 738, it was held that a right had been acquired by prescription to the surface of land belonging to a railway company, although a tunnel beneath the surface remained the property of the company as having been continuously in its occupation.