Irwin

Murray, C. J., concurred.

The several assignments of error will not be separately considered, because the whole merit of the case depends really on a single question, and upon that question the case must be decided. The proposition to be settled is whether the owner of a canal in the mineral region of this State, constructed for the purpose of supplying water to miners, has the right to divert the water of a stream, from its natural channel, as against the claims of those who subsequent to the diversion take up lands along the banks of the stream, for the purpose of mining. It must be premised that it is admitted on all sides that the mining claims in controversy, and the lands through which the stream runs, and through which the canal passes, are a part of the public domain, to which there is no claim of private proprietorship, and that the miners have the right to dig for gold on the public lands was settled by this Court in the case of Hicks et al, v. Bell et al., 3 Cal., 219 .

It is insisted by the appellants that in this case the.common law doctrine must be invoked, which prescribes that a water course must be allowed to flow in its natural channel. But upon an examination…