PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE first edition of the author's Treatise on the Law of Watercourses having been for about two years out of print, he now offers a second edition. During the time which has elapsed since the year 1824, when the first edition was published, there has accumulated a large additional mass of judicial authority, directly appertaining to the use and occupation of running water. It might not be going too far, to assert, that, within the last nine years, more decisions on the subject have appeared, in the various reports of adjudged cases, than all of an antecedent date put together. Though the fundamental principles laid down in the first edition are still, in the main, acknowledged and regarded; yet the later cases will be of much importance in determining whether the circumstances attending any new controversy, make it fall within or without those principles. The subjects of PRIOR OCCUPANCY and BACK WATER, which the authorities had left confused, if not unsettled, at the time when the first edition was prepared, have since been made intelligible; and it may be said that there are many other points that have been usefully illustrated, and that have become more permanently established by the expositions and judgments of courts of justice. To put the adjudged cases into an Appendix, as in the first edition, would require more than a single volume of the ordinary size; and, accordingly, the author has come to the determination of publishing this revised and much enlarged treatise, without giving all the cases at length at the end of the treatise; his plan being to cite them by name, at the bottom of the page, and to refer to the book and page where they are to be found. This plan, it may be observed, is the one by far the most usually pursued by law authors. A short Appendix will be found, however, in the present edition, containing the most approved forms of declarations for diverting a watercourse, &c. The treatise is made much larger than the former one, owing to having enlarged upon many important points; to the quoting, in frequent instances, the precise language of the Court; and to throwing considerable matter into the form of notes. The author has also adopted a new, and, to himself, a more satisfactory, method of considering his subject. Though the exact title to the work is preserved viz: "A Treatise on the Common Law in relation to Watercourses," yet the author has given the provisions of State statutes authorizing the flowing of land, and the construction which has been given to those of some of the States by courts of justice. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. THE author, in presenting this his third edition of the Law of Watercourses, has little to offer, by way of preface, in addition to what he in that way offered in the two editions preceding it. In the present edition very many new cases, it will be perceived, are referred to, which shows that the subject is gaining, rather than losing in importance. The plan of the present edition has been slightly altered, and new, and, as the author considers, more appropriate titles have been given to some of the chapters and sections. What he deems another improvement, is, that he has given, in an abbreviated form, in citing American cases, the name of the States in which they were decided, as well as the names of the Reporters. The author feels under obligation to the profession, for the lenity they have shown in overlooking his imperfections, and for that degree of encouragement they have extended,-which has made it an object to offer a third edition. PROVIDENCE, June 6, 1840. b CONTENTS. RIGHT TO A WATERCOURSE AS A CORPOREAL HEREDITAMENT. 3. Of the use of water by each Riparian Proprietor 4. Prior Occupation by one Riparian Proprietor 5. Whether Riparian Ownership comprises the Privi- |