18 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



The Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Company, 

 The Wyoming Lubricating Oil Company 

 and The French Syndicate. The last 

 named is a new combination which is just 

 starting in, with plenty of capital, which 

 i* evidenced by the excellent machinery 

 it has purchased, probably the finest outfit 

 that ever crossed the Missouri. 



Near Douglas operations will be carried 

 on by this syndicate early next year, as 

 well as by New York people and a company 

 backed by English capital. That the 

 lubricating oil of Wyoming will be one of 

 the principal resources of wealth to the 

 State in the future is as certain as the fact 

 that there is no oil found elsewhere or 

 manufactured that can begin to compare 

 with it for quality. 



To do any justice to the many other re- 

 sources of Wyoming in this article would 

 be impossible. The coal fields, larger 

 than any in the known world, the splendid 

 soda deposits, the unlimited iron supply, 

 the rich gold fields, both placer and other- 

 wise, each requires treating by itself. 

 Recently near Douglas some rich copper 

 leads have been discovered, which are now 

 being developed, mica and other minerals 

 being found in abundance. Throughout the 

 State there is unusual mining activity, and 

 it will not be long until Wyoming is rec- 

 ognized as the prospector's paradise, and 

 the best place in the world to invest 

 money in mining operations. 



A NEW PRINCIPLE RELATIVE TO SUB- 

 TERRANEAN WATERS. 



BY CLESSON S. KINNEY. 



Anew question in the history of water 

 rights was recently decided by the 

 Supreme Court of Utah, in the case of 

 Sullivan vs. Northern Spy Mining Com- 

 pany, 40 Pac. Rep. 709. It was as to 

 whether a person who discovers and ap- 

 propriates percolating waters on public 

 lands by digging a well to collect the 

 water can acquire an easement and right 

 to take and use the water against one 

 subsequently acquiring the title to the land 

 on which the well was located. The Court 

 held that such a right to the water could 

 be thus acquired. In the dicision the fol- 

 lowing statutes were construed: 



1. The Act of Congress of 1866 (U. S. 

 Hev. Stat. No. 2339) which provides among 

 other things as follows: " Whenever by 

 priority of possession, rights to the use of 

 water for mining, agricultural, manufac- 

 turing or other purposes have vested and 

 accrued, and the same are recognized and 

 acknowledged by the local customs, laws 

 and decisions of courts, the possessors and 

 owners of such vested rights shall be 

 maintained and protected in the same." 



2. The Act of Congress of Julv 9, 

 1870 (U. S. Rev. Stat. No. 2340) where 

 it 1 is further provided: "All patents 

 granted, or preemption, or homesteads 

 allowed, shall be subject to any vested and 



accrued water right, or rights to ditches 

 and reservoirs used in connection with 

 such water rights as may have been ac- 

 quired under or recognized by the preced- 

 ing section." The question that then 

 arose was, is the right to use water under 

 the facts stated, one that is recognized by 

 the local customs and laws? Section 2780, 

 Comp. Laws of Utah provides: "A right 

 to the use of water for any useful purpose, 

 such as domestic purposes, irrigating lands, 

 propelling machinery, washing or sluicing 

 ores and other like purposes, is hereby 

 recognized and acknowledged to have 

 vested and accrued as a primary right to 

 the extent of and reasonable necessity for 

 such use thereof under any of the follow- 

 ing circumstances: First, whenever any 

 person or persons shall have taken, diverted 

 and used any of the unappropriated water 

 of any natural stream, watercourse, lake or 

 springer other natural source of supply." 

 The Court in construing these sections 

 said: "We think it would be a very 

 strained construction to hold that a hole 

 dug three feet deep, into which the waters 

 naturally gathered, was not a natural 

 source of supply, while it is conceded if 

 the wiiter came to the surface and flowed 

 along a few feet, and was then collected in 

 a like hole, it would be a natural source of 



