292 SALMON FISHING 



rendered unattainable by abstraction of water for 

 mills the pass can be made double the width at the 

 intake. In this also it differs from the others. 



" The advantage is that at times when the mills do 

 not require the water double the quantity goes down 

 the pass. There is a similar result when the river rises. 

 When the mill lead cannot contain all the water the 

 pass gives the fish a free run in any state of the river. 

 It requires no attendant from one year's end to the 

 other. In nearly all other passes the water requires 

 to be regulated, and for weeks at a time fish are 

 unable to get through. 



" Not a few passes such as I have described have 

 been erected. In every case fish have ceased to jump 

 at falls and weirs ; no fish remains behind."" 



What is everybody's business is nobody's business. 

 Probably that is why the science and art of con- 

 serving rivers has made such haphazard progress. 

 Now at length, however, there is hope. Any river 

 that is equipped with storage and passes will speedily 

 recover. I have dwelt on details of the subject for 

 reasons which must have become manifest. When 

 all is said and done, no class in particular is to blame 

 for the sad disorder revealed in not a few of the 

 passages in Chapters vii., viii., and ix. Agricultural 

 drainage changed the character of many rivers. 

 Waters that long ago used to be of considerable flow 

 all the year round became raging torrents in time of 

 rain, and rather stagnant brooks in time of drought. 

 That was the origin of all the evils. Many waters 

 had become scarcely fit to be haunts of salmon. Even 



