39 



REMARKS ON THE FLOOD WATER OF THE WYE, 



1871. 

 By JOHN LLOYD, Esq. 



The Obancellor of the Exchequer remarked, in a recent speech, that we were 

 all in the habit of looking with pleasure at a running brook or river, but seldom 

 oared to estimate the quantity of water flowing by. How would the river 

 Pactolus with its golden sand fare, if within reach of the Treasury ? It would 

 soon figure in the estimate of revenue for the current year. We are prosaio 

 enough to gauge and register the contents of the once sylvan and pure Wye, and 

 in recording the result offer an apology to the shade of its presiding nymph, Vaga. 

 I say the " shade " advisedly, as the nymph herself has long ago been poisoned 

 by the sewage refuse of the highly-civilised citizens of the enterprising city of 

 Hereford. River gods and goddesses and water nymphs all died of typhoid fever 

 in the year 1847 or thereabouts, when the Towns Improvement Act became 

 generally enforced. 



In these days, when everything is measured and weighed, the habit grows 

 upon us, until we apply it to rainfalls, and their necessary sequence, the flood 

 water of our rivers. From the very simple tables kept at Hereford it is easy to 

 calculate now, or at any future time, the number of cubic feet of water passing 

 down the Wye on any and every day of the year. At 1 foot high 177,000 cubio 

 feet pass per minute, and so on up to 10 feet, when the total is 766,000 cubic feet. 

 A flood over 10 feet high spreads above the banks, and cannot be accurately 



The past year was remarkable for the evenness of its character, and formed 

 a pleasing contrast to the two preceding ones, in which, while deluged in the 

 winter months, the country was for want of rain burnt up in summer. On the 

 one hand there was not a single high flood ; on the other there was no long con- 

 tinuance of low water. The flood register shows that no unusual amount of 

 water flowed down the Wye, and the rain register similaily testifies to otly the 

 normal rainfall. Eain fell every month in moderate quantities, and this even 

 character of the year, while favourable to the green crops (such a year for roots 

 has seldom been known), proved above an average one in the fiesh-water fisheries 

 of the Wye. In 1870, on the Fownhope fishery, only 20 salmon were taken in the 

 nets ; in 1871, 186. In the April flood, 18th to 2l3t, there was a re.maikable run 

 of fine fish up the river; 44 salmon were taken at Fownhope on those days, of 

 the gross weight of 710 lbs., or averaging 16 lbs. each. The largest fish weighed 

 46 lbs. Though a fair number of salmon found their way safely to the " catches " 

 in the upper water*, the angUng was indifferent, as fish would not rise freely to 



