“ Owing to the dryness of the climate, the cloudlessness of the sky, the high elevation, and the prevailing winds, evaporation is rapid and great, being about 60 inches per annum at the east end of the river valley in Kansas, and 90 inches at the west line of the state. Outside of the valley in the western half of the state of Kansas are several million acres of arid upland and plateau, upon which grows a sparse but valuable grass upon which cattle may feed, and upon which they have, in times past, in vast numbers, been fed and fattened ”

“ We think proof should be made as to whether Colorado is herself actually threatening to wholly exhaust the flow of the Arkansas river in Kansas; whether what is described in the bill as the 'underflow' is a subterranean stream flowing in a known and defined channel, and not merely water percolating through the strata below; whether certain persons, firms, and corporations in Colorado must be made parties hereto; what lands in Kansas are actually situated on the banks of the river, and what, either in Colorado or Kansas, are absolutely dependent on water therefrom ”

“ Applying the principles settled in previous cases, we have no special difficulty with the bare question whether facts might not exist which would justify our interposition, while the manifest importance of the case and the necessity of the ascertainment of all the facts before the propositions of law can be satisfactorily dealt with lead us to the conclusion that the cause should go to issue and proofs before final decision. ”

“ The flow of the water in the river bed is also of great value to the people in the vicinity by reason of the fact that the evaporation therefrom tends to cool and moisten the surrounding atmosphere, thereby greatly promoting the growth of all vegetation, enhancing the value of the lands in that vicinity, and conducing directly and materially to the public health, and making the locality habitable. ”

“ The ordinary and usual rain-fall in the major portion of the valley of the river in Kansas is utterly inadequate to the growing and maturing of cultivated crops of any kind, because the precipitation is very scanty, and does not fall during the growing season of the year. ”

“ More than three fourths of these Kansas bottom lands were and are occupied by persons owning or leasing them, and residing thereon with their families; and more than two fifths, including more than two fifths of those on the river bank, are and have been for years in actual cultivation, with an agricultural population of more than 50,000, raising all products 'common to the latitude and climate,' while numerous cities, towns, and villages are situated on the bank of the river, including ten county seats, with an aggregate population of over 50,000. ”

“ It is true that no question of boundary is involved, nor of direct property rights belonging to the complainant state, but it must surely be conceded that if the health and comfort of the inhabitants of a state are threatened, the state is the proper party to represent and defend them. ”

“ But such cases manifestly do not cover the entire field in which such controversies may arise, and for which the Constitution has provided a remedy; and it would be objectionable and, indeed, impossible, for the court to anticipate by definition what controversies can and what cannot be brought within the original jurisdiction of this court. An inspection of the bill discloses that the nature of the injury complained of is such that an adequate remedy can only be found in this court at the suit of the state of Missouri. ”

“ All of the drainage area is east of the summit of the Rocky mountains and a large portion thereof in the mountains, where the accumulation of snow in the winter season is very great, the waters from the melting of which flow into the river directly and in great volume from early spring until August in each year. ”

“ A demurrer may also be overruled, with liberty to the defendant to insist upon the same defense by answer, if the allegations of the bill are such that the case ought not to be decided without an answer being put in. . . . A demurrer will lie wherever it is clear that, taking the charges in the bill to be true, the bill would be dismissed at the hearing ”

“ That in pursuance of the constitutional provisions and the statutes of Colorado, many persons, firms, and corporations claim to have acquired rights to divert water from the river and its tributaries, for the purpose of irrigating arid, nonriparian lands in that state, each of them owning one or more ditches or canals, some being of great capacity and many miles in length ”

“ That Colorado has by legislation appropriated large sums of money for the construction of reservoirs for the storage of water from the streams tributary to the Arkansas river, and provided for the control thereof and the sale of the waters so stored for the irrigation of arid lands, nonriparian to the streams from which the waters are taken. ”

“ Because it appears from the face of said bill that the state of Kansas in her right of sovereignty is seeking to maintain this suit for the redress of the supposed wrongs of certain private citizens of said state, while under the Constitution of the United States and the laws enacted thereunder said state possesses no such sovereignty as empowers it to bring an original suit in this court for such purposes. ”

“ The bill further averred that a large number of irrigation canals and ditches, now wrongfully used in diverting the waters of the Arkansas river and its tributaries from their accustomed channels in Colorado, are owned and operated by domestic corporations organized for that purpose under the laws of Colorado, with limited periods of existence ”