Barker

The plaintiff is the owner of certain lands in the county of Santa Barbara, situated upon both sides of a natural stream of water known as Cold Spring creek, which rises at a point north of the plaintiff’s land and flows through his premises into lands belonging to the appellants, which border upon the stream and lie south of and below the plaintiff’s lands.

Between July 1, 1894, and the commencement of this action, the plaintiff constructed a tunnel upon his land, on the east side of the creek, into which the water percolates from the adjoining land and produces a stream which flows from its mouth, discharging at that point about four and one-half inches of water under a four-inch pressure. The mouth of the tunnel is adjacent to the east bank of the creek, at an elevation of about five feet above the creek, and the tunnel runs from that point one hundred feet in a direction nearly at right angles with the creek; thence in a northerly direction and nearly parallel with the general course of the creek four hundred and fifty feet; thence in a northerly direction, gradually diverging from the course of the creek, three hundred and seventy-five feet, where it terminates at a point…