EIGHTS OF WAY IRRIGATION. 81 



Amendment and repeal. 



Sec. 6. That Congress hereby reserves the right at any time to 

 alter, amend, or repeal this act, or any part thereof. 



(This act is made applicable, at least conditionally, to National 

 Forest lands by the act of Mar. 3, 1899, ante, p. 79.) 



Ditches constructed by United States. 



Act of August 30, 1890 (26 Stat., 371, on p. 391). 



In all patents for lands hereafter taken up under any of the land 

 laws of the United States * * * west of the one hundredth meri- 

 dian, it shall be expressed that there is reserved from the lands in 

 said patent described, a right of way thereon for ditches or canals 

 constructed by the authority of the United States. 



RIGHTS OF WAY FOR IRRIGATION. 



Grant under State laws confirmed. 



Sec. 2339. Whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of 

 water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing or other purposes, 

 have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowl- 

 edged by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the 

 possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and 

 protected in the same; and the right of way for the construction of 

 ditches and canals for the purposes herein specified is acknowledged 

 and confirmed; but whenever any person, in the construction of any 

 ditch or canal, injures or damages the possession of any settler on the 

 public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall 

 be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage. 



Patents subject to vested rights. 



Sec. 2340. All patents granted, or preemption or homesteads al- 

 lowed, shall be subject to any vested and accrued water rights, or 

 rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water 

 rights, as may have been acquired under or recognized by the preced- 

 ing section. 



Irrigation rights of way. 



Act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat, 1095). 



Sec. 18. That the right of way through the public lands and reser- 

 vations of the United States is hereby granted to any canal or ditch 

 company formed for the purpose of irrigation and duly organized 

 under the laws of any State or Territory, which shall have filed, or 

 may hereafter file, with the Secretary of the Interior a copy of its 

 articles of incorporation, and due proofs of its organization under 

 the same, to the extent of the ground occupied by the water of the 

 reservoir and of the canal and its laterals, and fifty feet on each side 

 of the marginal limits thereof ; also the right to take, from the public 

 lands adjacent to the line of the canal or ditch, material, earth, and 

 stone necessary for the construction of such canal or ditch : Provided, 

 That no such right of way shall be so located as to interfere with the 

 proper occupation by the Government of any such reservation, and 

 all maps of location shall be subject to the approval of the Depart- 

 ment of the Government having jurisdiction of such reservation, and 

 10283°— 16 6 



