in its relation to Agi'iailtiire. 
443 
ingly minute as regards tho navigation ol' rivers, the rights of 
fishing, and property of foreshores and alluvial formations, it 
presents, on the other hand, much less peculiarity in questions of 
agricultural interests and imjirovement. 
Tlu? laws which regulate the flowing waters of Franc(> may be 
divided into two classes, according as they relate to benefits to 
be derived or evils to be averted. Under the first head 1 will 
examine the rights of disposing of public streams for purposes of 
irrigation, the erection of water power, machinery. 6cc. ; the 
second will comprise the regulations for the outfall of drainage- 
water, the flowing of sewerage, the erection of dams, and other 
interferences with the general outfall. 
The only distinction which the law can make in the nature of 
water is that it is either public or private property. The water 
of running streams, considered apart from the bed in which it 
flows, belongs to nobody, or rather belongs to the* owner of the 
land in the midst of which it flows only during its transit through 
his property. If he allows it to pass beyond the limits of his 
boundaries, he loses all his rights to its possession and use. But 
as a contingent advantage belonging to the soil, it is essentially 
regarded as a property, so much so that it can be mortgaged like 
other real property. It is to all intents and purposes portio agri, 
and, adds an ancient author, certum est in jure, aquam contineri in 
oppcllatione rei imniohilis* 
Private water is that Avhich is exclusively available for the 
wants of private individuals (^qucB privatorum commodis inservit) 
whether it springs within the boundaries of a proprietor or 
is brought from a public channel through a private one, arti- 
ficially made, into the property, with the view to irrigation, 
ornament, or household use. Thus all channels constructed for 
purposes of irrigation are considered private property, although 
the water itself may be taken from a public stream. There are 
few districts in France, for instance, where so many irrigative 
canals exist as in the neighbourhood of Aries, or indeed through- 
out the whole of ancient Provence. All these canals tap the 
river Durance at divers points of its course, and bring its waters 
over the arid plain of Crau, which they clothe with luxuriant 
vegetation. They are recognized by the French law as private 
property, with which the power of the central government has 
no right to interfere so as to stop the supply of water which they 
receive from the Durance, notwithstanding it is a public river, 
and as such under the direct control of the public administration 
of " Waters and Forests." 
Water is considered as public property when it runs con- 
* Pecchius, lib. ii., cap. 10 ; quoted by Dubreuil iu his work ' Legislation sur 
les Eaux,' vol. i., page 3. 
VOL. XX il. 2 H 
