Sec.10.  But this right to the use of waters, as an easement to the land, may be acquired and lost, or enlarged and abridged, by prescription.  A man may diminish the quantity of the water, or corrupt its quality, by the exercise of certain trades; and by such use of the water for a sufficient length of time, he is in law presumed to have acquired it by grant:  and this presumption is the foundation of his right by prescription.  The time of such use and enjoyment of water necessary to establish such right is twenty years, except in states in which a different period is fixed by statute. (Sec.7.)

Sec.11.  It is a general and established doctrine, that an exclusive and uninterrupted enjoyment of water, or of light, or of any other easement, in any particular way, for twenty years, or for any other period which in any particular state is the established period of limitation, is a sufficient enjoyment to raise a presumption of title as against the right of any other person.  The enjoyment is deemed to have been uninterrupted, whether it has been continued from ancestor to heir, and from seller to buyer; or whether the use has been enjoyed during the entire period by one person.

Sec.12.  As a right may be acquired by use, so it may be lost by disuse; and as an enjoyment for twenty years, or such other period as is prescribed by statute, is necessary to establish a right; an absolute discontinuance of the use for such period will raise the presumption that the right has been released or extinguished.  Thus a title to land may pass from its actual owner by non-occupancy for the period above stated; and a title to it may be acquired by an undisturbed occupant who shall hold it in peaceable and uninterrupted possession for the same period.

Chapter LIII.

Leases:—­Estates for Life; Estates for Years; Estates at Will; Estates by Sufferance; Rent, &c.

Sec.1.  Real estate, the title to which is conveyed by deed, as distinguished from other estates in land, is called an estate of inheritance.  An estate of inheritance, that is, an estate in lands that may be transmitted by the owner to his heirs, is a fee.  No estate is deemed a fee unless it may continue forever.  When it is a pure and absolute inheritance, clear of any qualification or condition, it is called a fee-simple.

Sec.2.  An interest in lands which is to continue for a limited period, is usually conveyed by a written instrument called lease. To lease, means to let; but generally to grant the temporary possession of real estate to another for rent or reward.  Sometimes the word demise is used for ease.  The landlord, or person letting the estate, is called lessor; and the tenant, or person to whom the land is leased, is called lessee.  Leases for a term longer than one year, are usually required to be sealed, and in some states, proved and recorded also, as deeds and mortgages.