Collier

In this cause the pleadings tender both equitable and legal issues which have arisen out of the con flicting claims between plaintiff, a riparian proprietor, and the defendant, an irrigation district, which itself owns certain lands riparian to the stream in question.

The Merced River is a natural stream of this state of considerable capacity, rising in the Sierra Nevada mountains and flowing westerly through the San Joaquin Valley and Merced County in its course toward the sea. Defendant is a public corporation irrigation district, organized in 1920, and owning in said county and valley about 189,000 acres of land susceptible to irrigation and cultivation, 10,000 acres of which lie to the north and the balance to the south of said stream. The lands are productive with irrigation and comparatively unproductive without it as the natural rainfall in the valley is insufficient for profitable agricultural production. Like many other California streams, the run-off of said river varies widely during the different periods of the year and likewise varies widely from year to year. In some seasons it has been known to carry a flow of as much as- 3,700 cubic feet per second; at other times…