THE IRRIGATION AGE. 41 



quantity claimed without regard to or compliance with the require- 

 ments of this chapter. 



Sec. 14. Persons who have heretofore claimed the right to water 

 and -^ho have not constructed works in which to divert it nor applied 

 it to some useful purpose, must, after this title takes effect, and with- 

 in ninety days thereafter, proceed as in this title provided, or tbeir 

 right ceases. 



Sec. 15. The County Clerk of each county must keep a book in 

 which he must record the notices provided for in this title. 



An investigation of the water right legislation of the other states 

 reveals the fact that the law or its equivalent has had a place for a 

 longer or shorter period in the statutes of nearly everyone of the irri- 

 gation states, and that it is still in force in Texas, Oregon, Washing- 

 ton, Nevada, Idaho, Oklahoma and Montana. More than one half of 

 the rights to water now in force in Nebraska have been initiated un- 

 der this statute. Inasmuch as it is still law in many of the states, it 

 may be worth while to consider it in detail. 



First in order is the notice. 



The name of the genius who first conceived the idea of posting a 

 notice at the point of diversion is unfortunately lost to history. "What 

 possible useful purpose could be secured by posting a notice in some 

 bend of the stream among the weeds and brush, where in nine cases 

 out of ten, it can never be seen except by the party posting, is difficult 

 to conceive. On streams like the Platte River or the Niobrara or the 

 Republican or the Loups of our state what chance that it could be 

 found even if sought for, by any other than the party posting. 



Think of a sane man gravely posting a notice in a willow thicket 

 on the banks of the Platte in Sarpy county near the eastern limit of 

 the state of Nebraska to protect himself against and to warn a possi- 

 ble claimant in Scotts Bluff county near the Wyoming line 400 miles 

 away. In contrast with this, the horse shoe and rabbit's foot super- 

 stitions seem respectable. At least, they are not mischievous and mis- 

 leading. 



The filing of a copy of the notice with the County Clerk or as in 

 one or two of the states with the County Surveyor, is another provis- 

 ion of almost equally doubtful value. Where the course of the stream 

 is wholly within the county in which the filing is made, this might be 

 considered a fair notice to subsequent appropriators, but inmost cases, 

 the division into counties is in disregard of topographical and drain- 

 age lines. 



The Platte River and its tributaries, the North and South Platte 

 in Nebraska, intersect or bound "2'2 of the 90 counties of the State. 

 The Republican touches in its course 9 counties, the Niobrara 10, the 

 Loups 13 and the Elkhorn 10. 



Every stream of any importonce in the state extends through two 

 or more counties, and the records of the filings made during these six 



