Waters and Water Eights — Watercourse Defined—Runoff from .Annual Rains and Snow Plowing in Defined Stream.—Water consisting of the runoff from the usual and annually recurring fall of rain and snow, draining from the surrounding hills into and through a canyon, in a well-defined channel, constitutes a watercourse, to which a riparian owner’s 'rights attach.

Id.—Plow not Necessarily Continuous.—It is not necessary to the existence of a watercourse that the flow should be continuous throughout the year.

Id.—Action to Restrain Interference With Plow—.Nonexistence of Stream—Pinding Contrary to Evidence.—‘Where, in an action against a water company to restrain interference with the flow of water in what was alleged to be a natural stream, the evidence showed that defendant was maintaining a reservoir by means of a dam in a canyon, into and through which canyon there was a flow of water consisting of the usual and annually recurring fall of rain and snow which drained from the surrounding hills, and that the stream formed by this water carried a substantial current during the season of rainfall and thereafter while the snows in the surrounding mountains were melting, beginning to run about November pr December, although ceasing entirely about June, as the dry season advanced, a finding that there was no stream or watercourse in the canyon was contrary to the evidence.

Id.—Natural Watercourse—Character not Lost by Long-continued Diversion.—If a canyon is in fact a watercourse under natural conditions, it does not lose that character by a mere diversion, however long continued, although the rights of a riparian owner may be subordinated to those of the appropriator.

Id.—Appropriator’s Bight—Forfeiture by Nonuser—■ Abandonment —Distinction Between—Intent.—Section 1411 of the Civil Code providing that “the appropriation must be for some useful or beneficial purpose, and when the appropriator or Ms successor in interest ceases to use it [the water] for such a purpose, the right ceases,” lays down a rule for the forfeiture of a right by nonuser, which is entirely distinct. from abandonment, which depends upon proof of an intent to relinquish permanently the possession and enjoyment of a property right.

Id.—Evidence of Intent to Abandon—Nonuser.—Nonuser affords evidence from which the intent to abandon may be inferred, but nonuser for a sufficient period ends the right, regardless of the appropriatoris intent.

Id.—Limitation of Usufructuary Bight — Prescription.—Where a valid appropriation had been made by a water company of water flowing in a natural watercourse, wMle the land below the point of diversion was still a part of the public domain, and a part of the land bordering on the stream below had since passed into the ownership of one claiming a superior right in the flow as against the right of the appropriator, who, it was asserted, had failed to apply the water to a beneficial use, the appropriator’s position was not strengthened by resting its right on prescription, since all such appropriator could acquire by diverting or impounding the water was a usufructuary right and not an ownership in the corpus of the water, except perhaps so much thereof as it had actually reduced to possession in its reservoir.

Id.—Storage of Water in Beservoir not a Beneficial Use.—Storage of water in a reservoir is a mere means to the end of applying it to a beneficial use, and not in itself a beneficial use.

Id.—Water Impounded in Excess of Beneficial Use—Evidence— Finding.—Evidence in an action by a riparian proprietor against an appropriator of water examined and found insufficient to sustain a finding that the defendant and its predecessors had, for more than forty years, continuously applied all the water impounded by it to useful and beneficial purposes.

Id.—Bight of Hiparían Owner in Excess.—In such case the riparian owner below the point of diversion is entitled to insist that the appropriator shall permit the escape into the canyon constituting the watercourse of the natural flow over and above what is required to enable the appropriator to meet its reasonable needs, measured by its maximum requirements during the five years preceding the commencement of the action.