ACCRETION

The act of growing to a thing; usually applied to the gradual and imperceptible accumulation of land by natural causes, as out of the sea or a river. Accretion of land is of two.kinds: By alluvion, i. e., by the washing up of sand or soil, so as to form firm ground; or by dereliotum, as when the sea shrinks below the usual water-mark. ' The increase of real estate by the addition of portions of soil, by gradual deposition through the operation of natural causes, to that already in po e ion. of the owner. 2 Washb. Real Prop. 451. Jefferis v. East Omaha Land Co., 134 U. S. 178, 10 Sup. Ct. 518, 33 L. Ed. 872; New Orleans v. United States, 10 Pet. 662, 717, 9 L. Ed. 573; Lammers v. Ni en, 4 Neb. 245; Mulry v. Nor• ton, 100 N. Y. 424, 3 N. E. 581, 53 Am. Rep. 206; Nebraska ·v. Iowa, 143 U. S. 359, 12 Sup. Ct. 396, 36 L. Ed. 186; Ewing v. Burnet, 11 Pet. 41, 9 L. Ed. 624; St. Louis, etc., R. Co. v. Ramsey, 53 Ark. 314, 13 S. W. 931, 8 L. R. A. 559, 22 Am. St. Rep. 195. In the civil la.w. The right of he!rs or legatees to unite or aggregate with their shares or portions of the estate the portion of any co-heir or legatee who refuses to accept it, fails to comply with a condition, becomes incapacitated to inherit, or dies before the testator. In this case, his portion is said to be "vacant," and is added to the f'9l"l)US of the est at.e and divided. with it, the ie:veral ehar~s or portions of the, ot4er [s. 24]