FLOOD LANDS AND WATER SUPPLY. 97 



of his wife in the paper; and later on his own. 

 But I have often fancied and fished his fairy 

 stream from the library armchair, reconstructing- 

 his small lodge and all the pools and dams he 

 formed. It must have been intense pleasure to 

 him after a busy life. I wonder who has it 

 now. 



Since the early part of this chapter was 

 written in the Pall Mall Gazette (who have 

 kindly given me permission to reproduce it) in 

 1899, a great deal has been done by certain 

 angling associations and hotels to prevent this 

 wasting of the water supply and its inevitable 

 consequence. While they look after an actual 

 river however, they can do little with the 

 adjoining lands. They are powerless to prevent 

 the swamps, which hold, like a sponge, 

 thousands of tons of water, from being drained. 

 While they are conserving the cash in hand, 

 someone else is tampering with the bank 

 balance. None of us want to see fly fishing 

 die out, like hawking, as an English sport. 

 But it is extremely difficult to know how it can 

 hold its own for another thirty years with all 

 the troubles that threaten it. While the 

 quantity of the water is decreasing, its quality 

 is being tried by chemical works or drainage, 

 and by tar refuse from the newly treated roads 

 two factors which must kill out game fish 

 from many a stream otherwise well suited to 

 their requirements. 



