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Show ELEMENTS OF WATERCOURSE 65 irregular intervals from a higher to a lower level;224 or temporary flows in shallow depressions that were only slightly lower than the surrounding land.225 -Exempted from classification as watercourses are west Texas draws that ordinarily are dry.226 -Nor was a slough connected with Sacramento River to be classed as a watercourse simply because it was a connecting slough, when the only water it carried consisted of insignificant quantities in times of flood-a role performed by every other low place along the bank.227 Other Factors Beginning of the Watercourse The channel of the watercourse necessarily has a definite beginning somewhere.228 In general, the watercourse begins at the place at which it first evidences all the characteristics necessary to its classification as such. This matter is closely associated with the source of the watercourse (see "Source of Supply," above). If it originates in the discharge of a spring, the watercourse begins at the place at which the water flows away from the spring in a well-defined channel. Likewise, if its source is a lake, it begins at the outlet of the lake. "Whether the water comes from a spring, subterranean vein, or surface-water, it becomes a watercourse from the point where it comes to or collects on the surface and flows in a well-defined channel or bed, with such banks as will ordinarily confine the water and cause it to run in a definite and certain direction."229 Determination of the point of beginning of a watercourse the upper part of which is fed mainly by diffused surface water involves not only selection of criteria for distinguishing watercourses from diffused surface waters, but also application of the selected criteria to the factual situation, which may be complicated. As to criteria, the South Dakota Supreme Court observed that: "At what time water, originating as surface water, by reaching and flowing in a definite channel or natural drainway, ceases to become mere surface water, and ™Sanguinetti v. Pock, 136 Cal. 466, 471-472, 69 Pac. 98 (1902); Doney v.Beatty, 124 Mont. 41, 51, 220 Pac. (2d) 77 (1950); Wyoming v.Hiber, 48 Wyo. 172,184-185, 44 Pac. (2d) 1005 (1935). 225 Sun Underwriters Ins. Co. of New York v. Bunkley, 233 S. W. (2d) 153, 156 (Tex. Civ. App. 1950, error refused). 226 Turner v. Big Lake Oil Co., 62 S. W. (2d) 491, 493 (Tex. Civ. App. 1933), affirmed, 128 Tex. 155, 96 S. W. (2d) 221 (1936). SeeSf. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co, v. Carroll, 106 S. W. (2d) 757, 759 (Tex. Civ. App. 1937, error dismissed), which did not involve the classification of these dry draws as watercourses, but in which the court refused to hold them to be, as a matter of law, statutory navigable streams. 227 Lamb v. Reclamation Dist. No. 108, 73 Cal. 125, 134-135, 14 Pac. 625 (1887). 228 See Herminghaus v. Southern California Edison Co., 200 Cal 81, 92, 252 Pac. 607 (1926). 229 Rait v. Furrow, 74 Kans. 101, 107, 85 Pac. 934 (1906). 450-486 O - 72 - 7 |