Sain v. Montana Power Co.

BOURQUEST, District Judge.

This is final hearing in a suit involving the primitive, ancient, and eternal struggle for the life-giving fluid, the water holes and springs in the desert, the streams which make fruitful and to blossom as the rose the waste places of earth.

The parties are some of the appropriators of the water of Rattlesnake creek, one of the more delightful of Montana’s many beautiful streams, despite its repellant but “Western” name. As usual, appropriations exceed the flow, and as usual, just apportionment involves difficulties inciting litigation in lieu of sometimes armed…