42 LANDS OF THE ARID REGION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
practices are obtaining the color of right from state and territorial legisla- 
tion, and to some extent by national legislation. In all that country the 
natural channels of the streams cannot be made to govern water rights 
without great injury to its agricultural and mining industries. For the 
great purposes of irrigation and hydraulic mining the water has no value 
in its natural channel. In general the water cannot be used for irrigation 
on the lands immediately contiguous to the streams—i. e., the flood plains 
or bottom valleys—for reasons more fully explained in a subsequent 
chapter. ‘The waters must be taken to a greater or less extent on the 
bench lands to be used in irrigation. All the waters of all the arid lands 
will eventually be taken from their natural channels, and they can be 
utilized only to the extent to which they are thus removed, and water 
rights must of necessity be severed from the natural channels. There is 
another important factor to be considered. The water when used in irriga- 
tion is absorbed by the soil and reévaporated to the heavens. It cannot 
be taken from its natural channel, used, and returned. Again, the water 
cannot in general be properly utilized in irrigation by requiring it to be 
taken from its natural channel within the limits ordinarily included in a 
single ownership. In order to conduct the water on the higher bench 
lands where it is to be used in irrigation, it is necessary to go up the stream 
until a level is reached from which the waters will flow to the lands to be 
redeemed. The exceptions to this are so small that the statement scarcely 
needs qualification. Thus, to use the water it must be diverted from its 
natural course often miles or scores of miles from where it is to be used. 
The ancient principles of common law applying to the use of natural 
streams, so wise and equitable in a humid region, would, if applied to the 
Arid Region, practically prohibit the growth of its most important industries. 
Thus it is that a custom is springing up in the Arid Region which may or 
may not have color of authority in statutory or common law; on this 
I do not wish to express an opinion; but certain it is that water rights are 
practically being severed from the natural channels of the streams; and 
this must be done. In the change, it is to be feared that water rights will 
in many cases be separated from all land rights as the system is now 
forming, If this fear is not groundless, to the extent that such a separation 
