36 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIB'ORNIA. 



the law. Hence every one knows, or can easily learn, how mining- rights 

 are acquired and what is the legal status of any particular claim. 



The establishment of water laws began in the same manner. At first 

 every user of a stream thought use the essential element, but little thought 

 was given to the establishment of rights equivalent to ownership. When 

 the gold was washed from claims, the ditch which sujDplied water was aban- 

 doned with the claim, and the property right in the stream was probably 

 not thought of further. As the use of streams extended and irrrigation and 

 domestic uses were added to mining it became manifest that water rights 

 were to have an enduring value, and provision was made for recording 

 notices of the appropriation of streams. As time went on people began to 

 give more and more attention to the legal forms by which rights to water 

 were recorded, and to regard a compliance with these forms as not oiil};- of 

 more importance in securing title than the actual use of the water, but as 

 being the principal consideration in determining ownership. In the evolu- 

 tion of the California water laws none of the safeguards which surround the 

 placer-mining law were incorporated. It places no limit on the volume of 

 water which can be appropriated, it does not make clear whether the extent 

 of the right is to be fixed by the carrying capacity of the ditch or canal, or 

 the needs of the land watered, or independent of either. It is ambiguous as 

 to whether the appropriator owns the water or has only a usufructory right. 

 What was done in effect was to throw open the record books of every 

 county in the State to the entry of any sort of a claim against its most 

 valued property which need or greed might encourage. The results on 

 nine streams are outlined in the reports which follow. These reports 

 do not, however, give an adequate impression of the existing situation. 

 The original plan was to publish an abstract of all these claims. Such an 

 abstract was prepared by a number of the observers. With only a line for each 

 claim, the publication of this list would have doubled the size and cost of this 

 report. Except to show how worse than useless is the law, the list has no 

 value. It gives no indication of the existing or intended use of water. There 

 are three consecutive claims to all the water of San Joaquin River, and the 

 aggregate of all claims in California represents enough moisture to sub- 

 merge the continent. The humor of the situation is shown in the reports 

 of Mr. Boggs and Professor Soul^. The evil comes in the failure of the law 

 to afford any adequate protection to those who comply with its provisions. 

 Evil communications corrupt good manners and misleading laws pervert 

 public opinion. Because the water laws of California provide for the legal 

 record of notices which assert rights to all the water of streams men have 



