RIVERS OF THE DISTRICT 13 



blessings which is never fully appreciated until it is 

 lost. 



To be just, however, pollution is not the only 

 cause of the scarcity of fish in the Kent. Like 

 most rivers it is affected by the increasing drain- 

 age of land over its watershed, and the more 

 effective systems of drainage. Drainage is now so 

 thorough and so general that within a few hours of 

 heavy rain the surface water has run off the land 

 and entered the river, with the effect that the 

 latter rises and falls with astonishing rapidity. 

 Before the system of drainage became so general, 

 the rain water had to percolate slowly through 

 the land, with the result that a day's heavy rain 

 might not find its way into the river for a week. 

 This surface water carries food in suspension, and 

 the general conditions were eminently favourable 

 to fish life. To illustrate the above point the 

 writer has frequently seen the innocent looking 

 Kent of twenty yards in width transformed in a 

 short night to a mighty tumultuous flood, rushing 

 swiftly along, carrying everything with it in its 

 widely extended bed flooding dwelling-houses 

 and submerging the valley bottom. With sluggish 

 rivers in flat countries this is not unusual, but the 

 Kent is hemmed in by steep banks, and on more 

 than one occasion has suddenly rushed several 

 feet above them. In this connection it may be 

 stated that, in proportion to its length, the Kent is 

 the swiftest flowing river in the country. In its 

 course of twenty miles, it falls nearly 2,000 feet. 



A minor influence which has tended to thedecrease 

 of trout in the Kent, is the taking away of cover 

 and harbour. Cover is as essential to fish as to 

 game, and the removal of stones, boulders, and mis- 



