224 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



visit, whenever they can, the hovers of 

 their ancestors. 



The autumn floods are just as they 

 should be. They cannot be deemed too 

 high. They enable the salmon and the 

 seatrout to run, and so scour and cleanse 

 the bottoms of the river and all the tribu- 

 taries that the spawn-beds shall be whole- 

 some. The floods of spring will suggest 

 thoughts much less comfortable. They 

 will be in exaggeration of the design of 

 Nature. Nowadays the hills and the 

 mountains are seamed with artificial 

 drains almost from the summits. These 

 became necessary in order that there 

 might be large flocks of healthy sheep. 

 One result is that when rain and melting 

 snow combine to make a flood there 

 comes vast injury to other than pastoral 

 interests. Millions of the eggs of salmon 

 and millions of the eggs of trout are 

 swept out of the spawn-beds and destroyed. 

 Besides, the water of the floods is, to a 

 very large extent, sheer waste. A three- 

 foot rise is quite enough to allow the 



