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 ever water seeps out from the districts above may come down and moisten the chaonel of the river, no one being permitted to use these waters in any way; and in order that when the water comes down to the city none of it shall be lost by filtering through the canal gates; penalty for violation of this measure being a fine of 10 pesos.

4. In order to avoid injurious shut-offs, the industrial establishments shall take the water for the running of their machinery when the water, on its way to the city, reaches the districts where they are located, and they shall be obliged to see that all the canal gates of the distributing canals (acequias) are securely closed; being held responsible for any abuses committed and subject to the same penalties as mentioned in the foregoing article.

5. The Commission calls to the attention of the Honorable Municipality the lack of regulations governing the use of water in the industrial establish- ments of the valley, as also in the stations of the railway; and also to the advantages which would result from making repairs in the channel of the river, which is in such bad condition.

6. The Commission proposes that the change in the system of irrigation be for the space of one vear a5 an experiment, in order that defects which may become apparent but which cannot be foreseen may be corrected.

The third district shall continue to irrigate in the present way, suffering no modification whatever in the order of its turno.

7. In order to put into effect the measures proposed in this resolution, a committee of experts shall be named by the delegates and the municipal Commission, as far as possible composed of persons who have no direet interests in the irrigating system. (Signed) Guillermo Watkins. Juan 2°, Sierralta. Copiapo, May 22, 1877 This is a correct copy of the original which remains in the archives of the municipal secretary. (Signed) José M. Grove, Secretary.

of the sudden interruption in the process of stealing water from his neighbor's canal. It was pointed out to me that the Decalogue does not include water among the things that shall not be coveted, hence water diversion from a neighbor's ditch at three o'clock in the morning seems to the drought-stricken farmer to resemble theft less than intense business rivalry.

Pierre Denis has described similar conditions on the eastern side of the Cordillera in Argentina: ‘““At Mendoza and San Juan the water-rights, codified in provincial laws which date, like the dams, from the end of the nineteenth century, are very different from the water-rights which hold in the Andean provinces of the northwest. The variety of the physical condi- tions is reflected in the institutions. Here water is not an object of private ownership independently of the soil. The