206 THE SALMON. 



former class of cases and even in that class by causes 

 which are comparatively new. The evils in this respect, 

 arising from the increased and ever-increasing size of 

 onr inland towns, and the great though yet but com- 

 mencing change in domestic arrangements, and in the 

 system of draining and sewage, may be said to be almost 

 new things, at least on the chief rivers frequented by 

 salmon ; but they are growing rapidly, and are in their 

 nature difficult and sometimes impossible to arrest, unless 

 taken in their beginnings. Till lately, our large towns 

 were chiefly (in Scotland entirely) on the coast, or within 

 tide-reach on some estuary or navigable river, and their 

 drainage went off to the sea with comparatively little 

 harm or offence, except in such extreme cases as London 

 and perhaps Glasgow. It was assumed, too, that this 

 state of things was permanent and unalterable. About 

 sixty years ago, a traveller (Eev. James Hall), beginning 

 an account of his tour through Scotland, thus refers to 

 the considerations which determined his choice of route : 

 " There never was and never will be any thriving city or 

 village at a distance from water-carriage, and every large 

 city or town always has been and always will be situated 

 either on the sea-coast or on the banks of some navigable 

 river." But now the railway system, with its cheap and 

 rapid carriage of materials, goods, and fuel, is enabling 

 manufacturing towns to rise in far inland localities, and 

 the fact is gradually appearing that such towns, sending 

 their drainage for scores of miles down the rivers, do, or 

 at least will, create a really national nuisance a nuisance 

 greater than that produced by towns many times their 

 size situated within the cleansing influences of the sea- 



