and the Storage of Water. 
37 
Denton also gave evidence to the effect that, in his opinion, a 
flood passing over the surface of meadow land quickly does 
^ood (unless it be impregnated with injurious substances), but 
if it is detained for days great injury results. On being ques- 
tioned, however, as to whether, striking a balance of advantages 
and disadvantages, he would rather have a flood on meadow 
land or have it altogether excluded, he replied, "Decidedly ex- 
cluded, that ichich a man cannot be master of is generally an evil." 
Regulation of Water. — Flood regulators may be either natural 
or artificial. The former exist where the subsoil is of a porous 
and absorbent character, and where the strata are so arranged that 
the water received into and stored up in the pores of the soil 
and the clefts and seams of the chalk or stone is given out again 
gradually in the form of springs within its own watershed. 
These reservoirs are the most valuable of all regulators for water 
supply, as a perennial flow of wholesome water is kept up in the 
stream even in the driest summers. The supply from this source 
might be materially increased by the formation of the " swallow 
holes " or dumb wells, already described, and the water thus pre- 
served to its own proper district in the wet season instead of being 
allowed to flow awav to sea. In many districts there are lakes 
which perform the part of flood regulators ; the outlet not being 
of sufficient capacity to discharge the water poured into it during 
heavy rains from the hill or mountain streams, it becomes stored 
up for the supply of the rest of the year. In the drainage of 
the Kilbeggan district, in Ireland, the flood waters of a large 
portion of the catchment basin were taken to Loch Ennell, and 
only delivered out by degrees, thus giving a command over the 
floods of the district to facilitate the drainage and supply the 
mill-power.* The Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland act as 
valuable regulators of the exceptionally heavy falls of rain which 
occur in that district, and many other instances could be cited. 
On the smaller brooks and water-courses valuable storage for the 
water supply of farmsteads and villages could be provided by 
the formation of large ponds or artificial lakes on the higher 
part of the stream. These, while acting as valuable reservoirs 
for the summer supply, might be made an ornamental feature 
in a park ; but, where this is not practicable, they would pay an 
ample rent for the ground occupied. 
However valuable lakes and reservoirs may be as regulators of 
small streams, it is an utterly fallacious idea to suppose that the 
floods of such rivers as the Thames could be prevented by any 
artificial system of storage : a remedy often proposed by those 
who have not paid sufficient attention to this subject. It has 
* Report : Drainage of Lands (Ireland), House of Lords, 1852. 
