STORAGE AND PASSES 



to its volume 1200 million gallons. The stored 

 water will be controlled by sluices at the outflow. 

 By means of these it will at all times be possible to 

 have the height of the river at whatever level may be 

 desired. 



Why are these artifices necessary ? 



As will have been perceived from Chapters vii., 

 viii., and ix., rivers in almost all regions of the United 

 Kingdom have had their natural order disturbed. In 

 Scotland, where it is particularly marked, the disturb- 

 ance seems to have begun about a hundred years ago. 

 At that time landowners and farmers awoke to the 

 fact that the hills would carry more sheep, which 

 would produce better mutton and richer wool, if the 

 lands were not boggy in so many places. That was 

 the origin of a movement which has changed the 

 nature of the Highlands and in particular the nature 

 of the rivers. Here and there a drain was made that 

 the water might be speeded off; and now at length 

 practically all the mountains and the hills are seamed 

 with channels from the summits. The end which was 

 in view has been attained. Many thousands of acres 

 originally swamp now bear heather or good grass, 

 and the sheep-carrying capacity of the hills has been 

 greatly extended. Grouse also, and even the red- 

 deer, have prospered through the reform. These 

 game birds and beasts require water, and plenty of 

 it ; but, as far as can be made out, they had rather 

 too much in the original state of nature, and they 

 do not, as a rule, seem to have too little now. On 

 the other hand, the fish of the rivers in the valleys 



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