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Show LAKES AND PONDS 101 surface waters collected in a slough and there remained-except for occasional overflow-for purposes of evaporation or seepage into the soil, they lost their characteristics as diffused surface waters and became waters of a pond, the principles of law applicable thereto being similar to those applicable to watercourses.409 However, the overall decision in De Ruwe v. Morrison was actually based on a complicated factual situation which included, among other things, the construction of drainage ditches by the defendants' predecessors for the purpose of draining and reclaiming the lakebed for valuable farming land, in which the plaintiffs and their predecessors had acquiesced for many years.410 Governing Principles of Law The principles of law applicable to lakes and ponds are similar to those governing watercourses.411 This is subject to qualification where physical dif- ferences are important, such as elevation of the lake level. (See "Lake: Reciprocal importance of lake level and outflow" under "Elements of Watercourse-Other Factors-Relation of Watercourse to Connected Sources of Water Supply," above.) 409 Froemke v. Parker, 41 N. Dak. 408, 415, 171 N. W. 284 (1919). 410 Each year a large part of the lakebed was subject to overflow in the high-water season, but because of the greatly deepened outlet and the extensive drainage system, the waters were drained off and the lands made available for pasture and crops through the summer and fall. 411 Froemke v. Parker, 41 N. Dak. 408, 415, 171 N. W. 284 (19l9);Block v. Franzen, 163 Nebr. 270, 279, 79 N. W. (2d) 446 (1956). In Roberts v. Taylor, 47 N. Dak. 146, 153, 181 N. W. 622 (1921), both parties were seeking to exclude any public use or public right in the open waters or bed of a lake and to fix the status as wholly private. In this regard in North Dakota, a lake is differentiated from a watercourse only in that it is simply an enlarged watercourse wherein the waters may flow, or a basin wherein the waters are quiescent. |
