HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



543 



at least, be satisfactory to themselves; but the claimants have 

 waited patiently nine years, trusting to the good faith of the 

 State to make good their losses, and it is unreasonable to ask 

 them to wait for an indefinite number of years more. The State 

 has permanently appropriated this water and will use it, and has, 

 by the act of appropriation, in the exercise of its sovereignty, 

 the right to use and control it through all future time, and enough 

 is known from the experience of the last nine years to show that 

 considerable damage has already accrued, which no mere restora- 

 tion of the water can atone for. 



Under the head of leading principles that would be recognized 

 and followed in deciding these cases, the Canal Appraisers remark 

 that in order to save the necessity of presenting general views in 

 each case they will state certain leading principles to be recog- 

 nized and followed in passing upon all these claims : 



1) The State will be held liable for the damage sustained by 

 the riparian owners in consequence of the diversion, on the prin- 

 ciple that fresh rivers to the middle of the stream belong to the 

 owners of the adjacent banks; that they are entitled to the 

 usufruct of the waters as pertinent to the fee, and for an inter- 

 ruption in the enjoyment of their privileges in that respect in con- 

 sequence of public improvements made by the State, are entitled 

 to compensation for damages sustained. 



2) There can be allowance made only to those who owned in 

 1849, or to the assignees of their claims. 



3) Nor can any allowance be made, even to the owners of 1849, 

 for any special damages from year to year since, except by way 

 of interest on the sum that shall be determined as the real loss 

 when the injury occurred. 



4) The State can not be held to pay for mills or other struc- 

 tures erected, or investments made, since that year, when every- 

 body knew that the waters had been diverted ; these erections or 

 investments were at the risk of those who made them. 



5) Nor can the appraisers take into consideration remote or 

 contingent damages to property, separate and distinct from water 

 power, and the property upon it alleged to have been depreciated 

 in value by the diversion. 



6) In estimating damages to a particular water power, addi- 

 tional expenses incurred in putting in new machinery, etc. 

 adapted to the new order of things will be considered, but only as 

 bearing upon the extent of the damages of 1849, which required 

 such expenditures to restore the power. 



