47 



tioii of the North and South Phitte rivers. Mr. John Bratt, of North 

 Phitte, states that it was his opinion that it went (hv in the sixties as 

 now. It seems, from these statements, that there ean be no (luestion 

 that from the time of the earliest travelers the river has gone dry 

 during the summer, in some years at least, and that it has ahvays been 

 very low in the late sunnner, and that in the summers of 18()2 to 18G0, 

 before there Avere enough diversions in Colorado to have any effect 

 upon the flow of the stream, the river went dry. In the early seven- 

 ties, before the construction of most of the large canals in Colorado, 

 there was another series of years when the river was dry. Since the 

 building of the large canals in Colorado and the irrigation of large 

 areas of land — that is, since 1885 and 188C — the river is said to have 

 gone dry practically every year. 



The fact that there never have been and are not now any irrigating 

 ditches of any considerable size along the section of the river innne- 

 diately above the State line and between that point and the junction 

 of the branches of the Platte would also point to the conclusion that 

 there never has been any reliable supply of water in this section of 

 the South Platte River. 



As has been stated before, the ownership of riparian land gives its 

 owner no more than a right to have the river continue to flow as it 

 was wont to flow. The above testimony shows conclusively that in 

 the section of the river from the State line to the junction there never 

 has been a reliable flow ; that the river has gone dry in many years 

 and has been extremely low every year. Under the doctrine an- 

 nounced by the Nebraska supreme court in Crawford v. Hathaway 

 the riparian proprietor is not entitled to enjoin diversions for irriga- 

 tion, but merely to damages resulting from the diversion of water 

 by later appropriators. With the records shoAving that the river 

 went dry in many years before irrigation began, it will be practically 

 impossible for a riparian proprietor along this section of the river to 

 prove that any damage which he may sufler from shortage of Avater 

 is due to the diversion of the water above. 



RETURN SEEPAGE. 



It is contended by many people in Colorado and by some in Ne- 

 braska that irrigation on the stream in Colorado not only has uot 

 decreased the supply in Nebraska except during the spring flood, but 

 has actually improved the condition of the river, or will do so m the 

 future. The seepage measurements which are given below seem to 

 show that an increase in the flow in the late sunnner is gradually pro- 

 gressing doAvnstream and has already reached the State line. 



Measurements have been made in the fall of every year since 1889, 

 with the exception of 1897, to determine the amount of water return- 

 ing to the river in the form of seepage. The results of these meas- 

 3043T— No. 157—05 m i 



