IBBIGATIOIf INVESTIGATIONS ON CACHE CREEK. 181 



The temporary injunction prayed for was granted and the operation of the Capay 

 and Adams ditches ceased. 



The battle royal was now on. Eminent lawyers and expert engineers were 

 engaged for the pi'eparation of the case. 



A theory of the defense, of which much was made in this trial, was that the 

 waters of the creek, sinking in the channel at Capaj', did not again appear, but passed 

 oft' through the gravel strata to the southeast, and that the waters which appeared in 

 the channel below Madison Bridge had their source in an underground supply coming 

 from the hills to the northwest through a depression known as Hungry Hollow. An 

 elaborate and expensive survey was made for the purpose of establishing this con- 

 tention. Existing wells were examined and manj- new ones bored for the purpose 

 of showing the character of the underground strata and the water levels of this 

 territory. The complainant was equally strenuous in his tontention that the waters 

 sinking at Capay were the same that reappeared alx)ve his dam, and that to allow 

 these upper ditches to take water could onlv result in ruin for him and distress for 

 those who depended on his ditch for water. He, too, had. his experts in the field 

 gathering facts and figures to substantiate his theory of the course of the underground 

 waters. 



April 24, 188S, the cause came to trial. For weeks the case di-agged its slow 

 length along, adding volume after volume of testimony, exception, and objection. 

 Expert witnesses for the plaintifi' testified to the class of facts that they had been sent 

 out to find, and those for the defense were equally loyal to their employers. Jklay 

 17, 1888, after six large volumes of tj'pewritten testimony had been taken, the 

 presiding judge stated that on account of sickness it would be impossible for him to 

 hear further testimony. Bj- stipulation the hearing was continued before a court 

 commissioner appointed for the purpose. Two more volumes of oral testimonj- were 

 added and the case was submitted May 24, 1888. 



To find anA' capable jurist who would undertake the appalling and thankless task 

 of digesting all this acctunulation of fact and theory, exception and objection, and 

 who was acceptable to both parties to the controvers}', was not easj'. Twelve years 

 have passed, and no referee on Avhom the contending parties have been able to agree 

 has ever been willing or has found time to take up the matter and reach a decision. 

 The cherished hope of the men who built these works of an improved husbandry, 

 which should restore and perpetuate the fertility of their fields, failed. The vision 

 of meadow and pasture and orchard and vineyard and garden and pleasant homes 

 vanished. In its place continued the dull round of plowing and sowing and reaping 

 wheat, while diminished production keeps pace with soil deterioration and the mort- 

 gage consumes. 



Through all these years the tempo rarj' injunction issued thirteen years ago con- 

 tinues in force. The Capay Ditch has been plowed in and the Adams Ditch is a 

 wreck, irrigating about 20 acres and carrying a little water for stock. Plate XVI 

 shows sections of the Capay and Adams ditches that have escaped obliteration. 



April 15, 1884, James Moore died. The clauses of his will disposing of the 



ditch are: 



9. I give and Ijequeath to my grandsons, William Wall and James Moore, and to the survivors 

 of them, that property known as the Woodland Ditch, including all its water rights and extensions to 



