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Show 72 CHARACTERISTICS OF WATERCOURSE substantial service for a large territory, making its watershed tillable and habitable. It was not a mere rivulet into which surface water gathered from a diffused state before entering some streamway on its journey to the sea. What the court held and specifically intended to hold was that the waters in this creek were those of a substantial natural drainage way, to be governed by the law applicable to streams, as distinguished from the law that governs diffused surface waters. Navigation. -The constitution of Texas, in declaring that the preservation and conservation of the natural resources of the State are public rights and duties, includes "the navigation of its inland and coastal waters."269 And the State Supreme Court has said that title to the waters of the public navigable streams of Texas is in the State, in trust for the public, and that the use of the waters for navigation purposes concerns all the people and is ordinarily regarded as a superior right.270 Navigability has not-to the knowledge of the author-been included in the list of essential characteristics of a watercourse, in Texas or elsewhere. If it were, some very small streams of water flowing from springs that otherwise would qualify as watercourses would be ruled out. Small streams have been classified as watercourses without consideration of their potential in this regard, even under broad interpretations of a navigable stream. On the other hand, without the recognized attributes of a watercourse, the utility of flowing water for navigation purposes would be small or nonexistent. And so a stream of flowing water that is navigable in fact would almost certainly be possessed of these attributes. Relation of Watercourse to Connected Sources of Water Supply The term "watercourse" comprehends not only a stream of water and the reasonably definite channel in which it flows, but also " 'springs, lakes or marshes in which such a stream originates or through which it flows.' "271 Lakes and ponds.-As noted elsewhere (see chapter 2, above, and "Lakes and Ponds," below), a lake or pond is a compact body of water with defined boundaries, substantially at rest, and a pond is essentially a small lake. Most western lakes are clearly connected with surface stream channels. The lake may constitute the source of a watercourse, or it may be the terminus of one or more, or it may be so situated that one stream flows into it and another flows out of it. A number of high-level lakes have several or even many small inlets and only one outlet. In such cases, the waters in the inlet and outlet 269 Tex. Const., art. XVI, § 59(a). ™Motlv.Boyd, 116 Tex. 81, 111, 286 S.W. 458 (1926). 271 State v. Brace, 76 N. Dak. 314, 322, 36 N. W. (2d) 330 (1949), quoting from Restatement of Torts § 841 (1939). |