WATER APPROPRIATION FROM KINGS RIVER. 271 



the "necessaiy water" for a ditch to commence at the foot of Red Mountain. 2.5 

 miles above Akers's place, and to irriofate lands below the point of diversion. 



In the following seven claims the amounts claimed can only be conjectured 

 from the sizes of the proposed ditches: Five feet wide, 2.. 5 feet deep; 20 feet wide; 

 3 feet wide at bottom; 10 feet wide at bottom, 6 feet deep; 10 feet wide at bottom, 

 2 feet deep; 50 feet wide and 10 feet deep; 20 feet wide on bottom, 30 feet wide on 

 top, 1 feet deep, and one which merely describes the purpose of the claim "irrigation 

 and watering stock." 



The seventh of these, giving top and bottom width of canal and depth, was made 

 b^' M. J. Church, at the head of the Sweem Ditch, and appears to have been intended 

 as a notice of enlargement. 



A claim of water from Wahtoke Creek is for "sufficient water" for irrigation. 



John Bensley, on behalf of the San Joaquin and Kings River Canal and Irri- 

 gation Company, on June 17. 1871, recorded a notice of a claim to the "first right 

 to water running in Kings River." 



The same canal companj-, five months later, claimed the waters of the river for 

 15 miles of its course. 



Such expressions as "50 feet of water," "all the water here flowing," "20 cubic 

 inches of water," "200 feet under i-inch pressure," "700 cubic feet under l-inch 

 pressure," "2 cubic feet running water," "500,000 inches per second under 1-inch 

 pressure," "5,184,000 cubic inches under 1-inch pressure," "all the water in the 

 lake," "2,000 miner's inches of water under a head pressure of 1 foot per second," 

 "200 cubic feet at the rate of 1 linear foot per second," "100 cubic feet of water," 

 "sufficient to fill ditch," are typical of the indefiniteness which is found in these 

 records of intent to take water. 



Occasionalh' a definite amount named in a claim is rendered uncei'tain by further 

 explanation, such as "8,610,000 cubic inches per second (200,000 inches under 4-inch 

 pressure)," which may be held to mean either 5,000 or 4,000 cubic feet per second. 



The location at which the notice is posted, or where the waters are to be diverted, 

 is generally described with fair precision, but sometimes there is no further descrip- 

 tion than "at the point whei-e this notice is posted," which is now and then made 

 more definite by reference to a pine or alder tree, or, far better, some cabin or 

 residence at least locally known. 



There is rarel}' anything of record that will enable an identification of the claims 

 under which ditches and canals which have been constructed take water. Neither 

 is any record made of the date of commencement of work, nor of its diligent 

 prosecution. 



When, by reason of an increased demand for water for any ditch or canal, the same 

 is enlarged and its works are so altered that it can deliver more water, the date of 

 such enlargement and the condition and capacitj' of the works before enlargement 

 genei-ally live only in the memory of the inhabitants, and where such enlargements 

 have been made it is more than probable that diligence in carrying the work forward 

 to the ultimate condition would be claimed even if years have elapsed between the 

 first construction and the enlargement. Attempts are thus often made to date back 

 to the original, taking the right to full finished canal capacit}', when controversy 

 arises with other claimants. 



