4 
Arterial Drainage 
the main carrier ; also to the condition of the rivers owing to 
neglect and the want of any general power to raise funds and 
carry out the necessary works whereby weeds are allowed to accu- 
mulate, shoals to arise, and deterioration generally to take place, 
whereby they are rendered inadequate to carry off the drainage. 
The remedy suggested for this is, first, the appointment of a 
Conservancy Board, fairly representing all interests concerned, 
who shall have power to deal with the main stream or river from 
its source to its outfall, leaving the several districts which dis- 
charge their water into the river by the tributary streams under 
the care of bodies already constituted, or to be formed at option 
under the Land Drainage Act ; and, secondly, that the Con- 
servancy Board shall have power to rate the whole area of the 
watershed, the assessment being made on its rateable value, lands 
and houses below flood-level being rated at a higher amount 
than those above. 
The principal remedial works pointed out as necessary for 
the prevention of injury by floods are the cleaning, scouring out 
and improving of the channel, embanking the sides, and the 
regulation of mill-dams and weirs, with provision for holding 
up and storing the water for use in the dry season of summer. 
Legislation. 
Rights of Water-courses. — Brooks or streams are formed by 
the union of springs and the contents of ditches. Rivers are 
formed by the union of streams. The extent of country drained 
by a stream or river is termed its basin. The line or ridge 
bounding the top of the basin is the " watershed," the streamlets 
shedding, or parting off as from the ridge of a house to their 
respective areas ; the space within this line being the area 
drained by the stream.* Large water-courses, in which the tide 
regularly ebbs and flows, and through which a common right 
of navigation is exercised, are generally public ; and the sub- 
jacent soil is the property of the Crown and under the control of 
the Board of Trade, or, in certain cases, in the lord of the manor, 
or trusts formed under the authority of the Legislature. The 
streams and water-courses which form the subject of this article 
are, as a rule, private property, and the soil over which they 
pass belongs to the person who owns the land on either side, 
or the riparian proprietor, " ad medium Jilum aqua;" the centre 
line of the stream being thus the boundary. The right to the 
use of the water and to the fishery in a private stream belongs, as 
a rule, to the riparian proprietor ; but the possessor of such right 
♦ ' Physical Geography (Advanced Text Book).' By Page. 
