McDaniel

Defendant owns the west half of a certain section, No. 26, in Colusa County. Plaintiff owns land adjoining on the west. Still farther to the west, at a distance of about two miles from plaintiff’s land, the Sacramento River flows from north to south. The land next the river is the highest, there being a gradual descent from the river bank to and beyond the land of defendant. When the river rises above the level of its banks, — as it generally does several times during every rainy season, — the water flows off to the east or southeast across the land of plaintiff, and other lands similarly situated, to and across the land of defendant, and other lands in the same relative situation. It does not flow in any narrow or defined channel or channels, but in a broad sheet covering a wide surface. When the river falls below the level of the banks, the overflow cannot, of course, find its way directly back into the stream, and consequently the lands near the river are drained by the spread and flow of water toward the east and southeast, across the lower lands such as those of defendant. Left unobstructed in their natural and accustomed flow, these waters soon pass beyond the plaintiff’s…