26 ROD AND RIVER 



or to flow into any stream of water. ( Vide the 

 Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, 1876.) 



That a coach-and-four may be driven through 

 any Act of Parliament is a saying as true as it is 

 old. What, I ask, is the good of the foregoing 

 Act if it is permitted to be so flagrantly and 

 generally ignored ? Can any farce be more truly 

 farcical ? It is about time that something were 

 done to put matters straight. I cannot at the 

 present moment, though I have tried to do so, 

 call to mind any one single river in England, out 

 of the many with which I am acquainted, and 

 have fished in, which is not polluted in a greater 

 or less degree, and I could, moreover, give the 

 names of rivers, and where and how they are so 

 polluted. Everybody who knows them is aware 

 that such is the case, but then, when it comes to 

 taking any active part to prevent the nuisance, 

 everybody becomes nobody. 



Salmon, trout, and grayling must have clean 

 water in which to live and thrive, and clean beds 

 on which to spawn. It is not much to ask, yet this 

 reasonable request is denied them. Where trout 

 are dwindling in a stream, one is informed that it 

 is the work of * otters,' ' Jack herons ' (why 

 always Jack, I know not) everything, any- 

 thing, but what it really is. When I am so 

 informed I invariably view my informant with 

 some considerable suspicion. Ten to one but 



