Gray

Victoria P. de Magee died intestate in 1886 and left as part of her estate certain lands in San Diego County which lie on the southwesterly slope of the Agua Tibia Mountain, in an elevated valley or bench bordered on all sides, except the southwest, by rapidly rising ground. Hugh Magee, as one of the executors of this estate, has been in personal charge of these lands since about 1913. He has also entered under the law of the United States as cattle-raising homesteads, certain other adjoining tracts of land on the east, the north and the southwest. Portions of these other lands have been patented and other portions merely entered. For many years water had been diverted by the Magee family from Castro Creek, a natural stream running through the property, for the purpose of irrigating parts of said land. In 1924 plaintiff Gray established a camp on certain lands belonging to Hugh Magee under some arrangement with him. In 1925 he built thereon a stone lodge and certain other structures, and began to take a portion of the Castro Creek water from the Magee ditch for domestic purposes. A little later he installed his own pipe-line, taking water directly from this creek, his intake being…