that period there were forty floods varying from 300 to 15,000 second feet. He testified that in the past twenty years there had been eight floods that would have taken "that whole structure out if it hadn't been operating." He was employed by the contractor who made the original installation and has known the area at all times since the works were installed. He further testified that the "pond", dikes, wasteway and floodway are, and were, integral parts of the intake system of the North Sterling Irrigation District, and that it has been so maintained at all times since its creation. He also testified that at all times since 1927, when he became superintendent, the District had been in exclusive possession of the "pond"; his men had beeninstructed to "keep all damaging trespassers out of there"; and that cattle had been kept out with the cooperation of the farmers in the "pond" area. Over the period of time within which the "pond" was operated as part of the inlet canal, before and after construction of the ditch in 1948, the District *779 expended approximately $20,000 in properly maintaining the pond area.
Other witnesses called by the District testified, generally, to the constant occupation and use to which the pond area was subjected by the District for a period of approximately forty years.
Pertinent portions of the findings of the trial court are as follows:
"The tract of land in question, during the years intervening between the commencement of Civil Action 1378 and the present, has existed as a