Harlan F. Stone

“ The evidence, taken as a whole, clearly establishes the flat topography of the disputed area, the shallow water without defined banks, ice bound from three to four months of the year, the separation of areas covered by water of sufficient depth to float boats, the presence of tules and other forms of water vegetation, a dry season every year, and frequent dry years during which Mud and Harney Lakes are almost entirely without water, and Lake Malheur is reduced to a relatively few acres of disconnected ponds surrounded by mud. ”

“ The voluminous scientific evidence must be accepted as establishing that any diversion, which could reasonably be assumed to take place by reason of irrigation, is too small in comparison with the area affected to produce any variation in depth of water sufficient to affect navigability. At a surface elevation of 4,092 feet the three lakes are connected and the flow of water required to raise water surface an additional foot, when allowance is made for increased evaporation, would considerably exceed any estimated amount of water artificially diverted. ”

“ A bill to quiet title may not be defeated by showing that the plaintiff's interest, otherwise sufficient to support the bill, is subject to possibly superior rights in third persons not parties to the suit. ”

“ The state contends that the common-law rule, applied by this Court in Hardin v. Jordan, 140 U.S. 371, 11 S.Ct. 808, 35 L.Ed. 428, that a conveyance of land bounded upon the waters of a nonnavigable lake carries by implications to the center of the lake, does not obtain in Oregon, especially in the case of lakes of the size of Malheur and Harney. ”

“ He made subsidiary findings with respect to (1) the physical condition, present and past, of the several bodies of water with respect to their depth, their channels or waterways capable of use in navigation, and the presence within them of vegetation, all of which affect their use and the access to them for purposes of navigation, and (2) their actual use, past and present, with special reference to (a) trapping of fur-bearing animals and (b) boating. ”

“ In the exercise of that control it has excluded hunters, erected posts marking the limits of the reservation, posted notices advising all persons of the existence of the reservation and warning them to refrain from hunting on it. ”