364 lERIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



the beginning of construction on the dam and distribution system. Work was con- 

 tinuously prosecuted until the completion of the system in April, 1888. This filing 

 was made, manifestly, in the interest of the San Diego Land and Town Company, by 

 its then general manager, William G. Dicl^inson, although in his individual name. 

 It has undoubtedh' become a valid claim upon the water, and has priority over all 

 others. There is nothing in the water-right records to indicate whether or not this 

 claim has ever been transferred to the San Diego Land and Town Company by 

 Mr. Dickinson or his heirs, and a seaivh of the records in other books than those of 

 water claims would be necessary to determine this point. 



Claim No. 17. On the 1st day of April, 1887, William G. Dickinson filed 

 another claim, in his individual name, to 5,000 inches, which was posted at the same 

 point as claim No. 15, viz, the Sweetwater Dam, and designating as the point of diver- 

 sion "'the center of the stone dam now being built by the San Diego Land and Town 

 Company." Whether this claim should be regarded as supplemental to claim No. 15, 

 or as amendatorj' thereto, or a substitute therefor, is quite indeterminate. Both 

 claims are in ever\' respect alike, and as there had been no cessation of work between 

 the respective dates of their filing there could have been no forfeiture of the first 

 claim which necessitated a renewal of the recorded notice to the world. If the claim 

 be considered as supplemental to claim No. 15, making a combined claim of 10,000 

 inches instead of 5,000, the question arises as to why this was necessaiy to protect 

 the rights of the appropriator, and what should be the interpretation of any claim to 

 water for a reservoir as these claims are ordinarily expressed. If an individual or 

 corporation builds a reservoir and files a claim to, saj'^, 5,000 inches, and the flow of 

 the .stream in freshet sometimes exceeds the 5,000 inches b}' fifty or one hundred times, 

 should the3- be limited to the 5,000 inches while it was flowing, and be required to 

 allow the surplus over and above 5,000 inches to pass by them to subsequent appro- 

 priators, if there were such, or should the amount of the filing be considered as an 

 average volume of 5,000 inches for the year, or the irrigation season, or the rainj- 

 season? Again, if the reservoir could be filled by the average flow of 5,000 inches 

 for a shorter period than the irrigation season, the definition of the rights under the 

 appropriation of 5,000 inches would still be very obscure and susceptible of serious 

 conflict if there were contending claims to the stream. 



Claim No. 20. for 75,000 inches, filed by the San Diego Land and Town Company, 

 through William G. Dickinson, general manager, August 24, 1888, was evidently the 

 outcome of a discussion of these questions, and in order to make the appropriation 

 cover all the flow of the stream up to what was supposed to be the extreme limit the 

 amount was placed at 75,000 inches (1,500 cubic feet per second), which was the esti- 

 mated maximum discharge, judging by high-water marks remaining in the canj'on at 

 the time the dam was built. This discharge was greatly exceeded during the freshet 

 of 18!»5, when the average flow for one hour was 18,150 cubic feet per second, or 

 907,500 miner's inches under a 4-inch pressure. The company did not need .so nmch 

 water, and would have been well satisfied to have had some other appropriator take 

 all the surplus over and above the amounts named in the several filings before it 

 reached their reservoir. However, they have made good their combined appropria- 

 tions of 85,000 inches, whenever such an amount of water was flowing in the stream, 

 and these claims are the only valid ones of any moment on the river. 



