ENEMIES. 75 



Perhaps, however, the most fearful of all enemies 

 of fisheries is the polluting manufacturer. A tank of 

 bleach from a paper mill, or acid refuse will do more 

 to destroy the fishing within a certain range than all the 

 other foes put together, as it not only destroys the 

 fishes but also the food on which they subsist. The 

 tough seasoned fish may stand it for a time, but to the 

 immature or weakly fish these visitations are disastrous 

 indeed, as has already been pointed out in the last 

 chapter. 



Fortunately, an Act of Parliament of compara- 

 tively recent date has been found to be of much 

 greater utility than was expected. Under the Rivers 

 Pollution Bill several signal convictions have been 

 secured, and it is to be hoped that the scope and 

 general usefulness of the measure may be increased, 

 as the benefits it confers are more widely known and 

 appreciated. Most of us will have heard of the 

 fearful outcry against the Alkali and Smoke Acts, 

 some years ago ; now that the benefits they secure are 

 fairly appreciated, the manufacturers, against whom 

 these Acts were primarily directed, are asking for a 

 more stringent enforcement of a yet more stringent 

 Act. 



The fact is, that when once a man finds he can in 

 the " long run " make money out of what he formerly 

 threw away, he generally is not slow to adopt any new 

 process having that end in view, to his own advantage, 

 as well as that of his neighbours. 



Changes of practice, as well as of thought and 

 habit, are naturally slow in their advent ; but we trust 

 that in a few years great strides may be made in the 

 extinction of the frightful pollutions that now foul our 



