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Show 74 THE RIPARIAN DOCTRINE or pools after it has ceased to flow. The water that comes to rest permanently in a basin made by nature for that purpose, although it may have been floodwater at one time, ceases to be floodwater and becomes a lake or pond.376 Spring.- The law regarding spring waters is treated later, in chapter 18. If the spring does not flow from the land on which it rises, this subject may merge into that of percolating ground waters and diffused surface waters. If, however, the spring is the fountainhead of a watercourse that is not confined to the tract on which it originates, the laws regarding watercourses apply. This is indicated later under "Interconnected Water Supplies." Marsh or swamp.-As shown later under "Interconnected Water Supplies- River and cienaga," it was held in California that riparian rights in a river applied to the water in a cienaga-swamp or marsh-which the evidence clearly showed to be a part of the water of the river.377 In that case the cienaga was directly connected with the river and its waters were part of the river waters. Under the circumstances of a Washington case, on the other hand, it was held that the evidence failed to show any riparian right in the appellant because of the absence from the case of any stream or waterway. "The evidence shows that a marsh or swamp with no outlet existed upon respondent's land. There is some evidence that a depression or possibly an outlet once existed, but such outlet had long since been obliterated, and the only outlet now existing or which has ever been used by the appellant is an artificial one."378 Diffused surface water.-In chapter 2, "watercourse" is defined as a definite stream of water in a definite natural channel, originating from a definite source or sources of supply; "lake or pond" is defined as a compact body of water with defined boundaries, substantially at rest; and "diffused surface water" is defined as water that occurs, in its natural state, in places on the surface of the ground other than in a watercourse or lake or pond. It is true that in moving over the surface of the ground, rain and melting snow follow depressions, both shallow and deep. It is also true that these flows become concentrated in channels for periods of time that may be either brief or protracted, and for distances of varying length. At the point at which the channel with its streamflow begins to conform to the characteristics of a watercourse, these previously diffused surface waters lose their classification as such and become waters of a watercourse, subject to the laws applicable thereto.379 Because of the natural physical features involved in the mutual exclusion of diffused surface water and water of a watercourse or lake or pond in the above 374Humphreys-Mexia Co. v.Arseneaux, 116 Tex. 603, 611, 297 S.W. 225 (1927). 377Hall v. Webb, 66 Cal. App. 416, 420, 226 Pac. 403 (1924, hearing denied by supreme court). ™ Hay ward \. Mason, 54 Wash. 653, 656-657, 104 Pac. 141 (1909). 379 For a discussion of whether and under what circumstances flood waters of a stream may become diffused surface waters, see, in chapter 3, "Floodflows-Flood Over- flows." |