Trunk Drainage. 
51 
cjnd a waterman stated in evidence that they liad had a fire in the 
bed of the river to cook provisions, durinjj their lonij detentions 
at these shoal nuisances. Being liable to be detained for weeks 
for want of water, they sometimes resort to the following expe- 
dient : they sink a boat or two across the river, put a tarpaulin 
in front, place the deck-boards of their boats here and there, and 
get two or three poor boys to go naked into the river and stuff 
up the sides to prevent the water escaping. This erection of a 
temporary dam they call " Hushing a sluice," as it serves to hold 
up the water which they let in from the next staunch above, 
enough to float them through a sluice or over the shallows. 
Having brought their cargo on to Peterborough, they take up 
all the tackling, and leave the next man to arrange for himself 
as he can. 
Besides all the damages to agriculture and navigation, the 
property of merchants and shopkeepers who have warehouses near 
the river suffers very considerably from the irruptions of the 
Nene. The houses in the lower part of Northampton, and in most 
of the numerous milages, are also often flooded. In timber and 
coal yards it is impossible to prevent a great sacrifice of pro- 
perty, and at Peterborough Wood Fair the floods have occasion- 
ally carried away an immense amount of wood, hurdles, gates, 
&c., ready piled for sale. Many houses are inundated ; the ordi- 
nary roads across tlie valley are frequently rendered impassable 
for several weeks together ; and labourers Avho are compelled to 
seek for work in other parishes are obliged to leave their families 
and take lodgings there, or else wade daily to their work through 
the water. 
But one of the most momentous consequences of the Nene 
floodings is the injury to public health, as there are upwards of 
100,000 inhabitants in the parishes throixgh which the valley 
passes ; and pestilences, if here generated, will not confine their 
ravages witliin the bounds of these parishes. Dr. Farr, of the 
General Registrar's Office, who has surveyed this valley, says in 
a letter to the Rev. Mr. Hartshorne, " The subject of the Nene 
Valley is of national interest ; your valley is one of the last re- 
fuges of intermittent and marsh diseases left in Great Britain ; it 
is their stronghold, and they destroy more lives than the Danes 
or the Saxons of old." Northampton is one of the six places in 
England which present the lowest proportion of persons living 
to one death. Dr. Robertson, of Northampton, observes in a 
Medical Report that, " when the floods subside, the meadows 
not only remain saturated with water, but are covered with mud, 
slime, and various animal and vegetable matters in a state of de- 
composition. These exhale an odour, not only offensive to the 
sense of smell, but likely to be pernicious to the health of those 
E 2 
