Water-Course

A natural stream of water fed from permanent or periodical natural sources and usually flowing in a particular direction in a defined channel, having a bed and banks or sides, and usually discharging itself into some other stream or body of water. Los Angeles v. Pomeroy, 124 Cal. 597, 57 Pac. 587; Chamberlain v. Hemingway, 63 Conn. 1, 27 Atl. 239, 38 Am. St. Rep. 330; Ribordy v. Murray, 177 III. 134, 52 N. E. 325; Rait v. Furrow, 74 Kan. 101, 85 Pac. 934, 6 L. R. A. (N. S.) 157 ; Dickinson v. Worcester, 7 Allen (Mass.) 19; Earl v. De Hart, 12 N. J. Eq. 284, 72 Am. Dec. 395; Barkley v. Wilcox, 86 N. Y. 140, 40 Am. Rep. 519; Simmons v. Winters, 21 Or. 35, 27 Pac. 7, 28 Am. St Rep. 727. There must be a stream usually flowing in a particular direction, though it need not flow continually. It may sometimes be dry. It must flow in a definite channel, having a bed, sides, or banks, and usually discharge itself into some other stream or body of water. It must be something more than a mere surface drainage over the entire face of a tract of land, occasioned by unusual freshets or other extraordinary causes. It does not include the water flowing in the hollows or ravines in land, which is the mere surface-water from rain or melting snow, and is discharged through them from a higher to lower level, but which at other times are destitute of water. Such hollows or ravines are not. in legal contemplation, water-courses. Hoyt v. Hudson, 27 Wis. 656, 9 Am. Rep. 473 ; San-guinetti v. Pock. 136 Cal. 466. 69 Pac. 98, 89 Am. St. Rep. 169; Luther v. Winnisimmet Co.., 9 Cush. (Mass.) 171; Pyle v. Richards, 17 Neb. 180, 22 N. W. 370. But if the topography of the surrounding country is such that water accumulates in great quantities after heavy rains or at the season of melting snows, and descends periodically through a well-defined channel which the force of the water bas made for itself, and which is the accustomed channel through which it flows and has always flowed, such channel is to be deemed a natural water-course. Kelly v. Dunning, 39 N. J. Eq. 482; Earl v. De Hart, 12 N. J. Eq. 280. 72 Am. Dec. 395; Simmons v. Winters, 21 Or. 35, 27 Pac. 7, 28 Am. St. Rep. 727.

— Natural water-course. A natural stream flowing in a defined bed or channel; one formed by the natural flow of the water, as determined by the general superficies or conformation of the surrounding country, as distinguished from an "artificial" water-course, formed by the work of man, such as a ditch or canal. See Barkley v. Wilcox, 86 N. Y. 140, 40 Ain. Rep. 5i9; Hawley v. Sheldon, 64 Vt. 491, 24 Atl. 717, 33 Am. St. Rep. 941; Porter v. Armstrong, 129 N. O 101, 39 S. E. 799.