Witherill

This is an action to quiet title to certain rights alleged to have been- acquired by prescription to seventy-five inches of the water of Grouse Creek, which is a branch of Scott River in Siskiyou County, California. The judgment awarded plaintiff title to seventy-five inches measured under a four-inch pressure, to be used for domestic and irrigation purposes. This was conveyed to the premises of plaintiff by means of an open ditch which has been maintained for that purpose since 1854. The defendants were restrained from interfering with plaintiff’s right or title thereto.

Plaintiff claims title by mesne conveyance to some two hundred acres of land in section 18, township 40 north, range 7, in Siskiyou County. This land is not riparian to Grouse Greek. . Appurtenant to the land, however, is a certain irrigation ditch a mile and a half in length, two feet in width and a foot and a half in depth. This ditch taps the water of Grouse Creek near the point where it empties into Scott River above the premises of plaintiff. For more than fifty years plaintiff and his predecessors in title have owned the land, maintained the ditch and used the water thus conveyed to their land for mining,…