30 
Bulletin 67. 
ficial be a member of divers boards of control of sundry internal 
improvements, to perform important services about state canals, 
with reference to desert land entries, and many other similar 
matters not pertinent to this paper except as showing how much 
of the time of the state engineer is necessarily invaded by other 
duties besides the important ones above indicated. 
An act in relation to irrigation, passed in 1901, has been 
referred to at the close of the statement of powers and duties of 
superintendents of irrigation. All the powers conferred upon 
superintendents of irrigation by that act are also conferred upon 
state engineers. The sixth section of said act of 1901 (pp. 
1:95-6) makes it especially the duty of the state engineer, on the 
request of the owner of a reservoir situated upon or in the bed 
of a natural stream, at the expense of the owners thereof, to 
cause a complete survey of the contour lines of said reservoir 
to be made for each vertical foot in depth, and also when he 
deems it necessary of fractions of a foot; also to prepare a table 
showing the number of cubic feet capacity of said reservoir for 
each foot in depth and fractions thereof, and to place a gauge 
rod in said reservoir, marked in correspondence with the contour 
lines. In event the owner fails to cause said survey, etc., to be 
made, it is made the duty of the state engineer to refuse to per¬ 
mit the reservoir to be used until such survey, etc., is made. 
COMMENTS ON POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE STATE ENGINEER. 
The mere recapitulation of the functions of the state engineer 
as the head of the system of irrigation and distribution of the 
state, his supervisory control of all water commissioners and 
superintendents of irrigation, his appellate jurisdiction over sub¬ 
ordinate officials, his special duties with reference to the measure¬ 
ment of canals and reservoirs, his supervision and control over 
the construction of reservoirs, his duty to provide for self¬ 
registering devices in many instances, is sufficient of itself to 
make plain the responsibility of his office. 
It is plainly within the intent and purpose of the statute that 
the state engineer must devote considerable time to a thorough 
study of the whole system of irrigation distribution of the state. 
In that connection he must become familiar with the work of the 
several superintendents of irrigation, and satisfy himself that 
they are properly performing the duties by law of them required. 
This also applies to the reports of the several water commis¬ 
sioners. As the state engineer is required to be a man of pro¬ 
fessional ability as an irrigation engineer, his advice and sug¬ 
gestions to superintendents of irrigation and water commis¬ 
sioners should be of special helpfulness. The result of his study 
