98 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 



dipper on the mossy stones, the coots, the grebes, 

 the teal, the blue heron of the shallows ? All 

 are gone a sacrifice to pollution. Once there 

 were salmon and trout, pike, perch, roach, and 

 bream ; these have gone the way of the birds. 

 Once the otter haunted the quiet pools, but it 

 left them when its food ceased. Once there 

 were water-rats, voles, shrews, and mice ; these 

 were long ago thinned out of existence. There 

 were the gauzy-winged flies, too, so exquisite 

 of form and colour, that were characteristic of 

 the anglers' months from dry March to sodden 

 October ; the trout-loved denizens of the streams, 

 the ephemerae. But these vanished at the very 

 first sign of pollution. And now that all these 

 are gone, our typical rivulet is what it is, a foul, 

 unlovely stream, destitute of life. Pollution is 

 indirectly responsible, too, for the disease which 

 periodically affects the fish in the rivers and 

 lakes of this country. Some few years ago 'this 

 scourge played terrible havoc in many of the 

 best northern streams, especially those which 

 were systematically polluted. Whether it is true 

 that pollution is the first cause of disease may 

 be open to question ; but it is certain that fish 

 once so afflicted never recover, save in water 

 of the purest description. 



To look at the question of pollution, how- 



