THE MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
261 
The injurious effects of floods are not confined to agricul¬ 
tural districts, but the low-lying parts of many towns, 
Northampton included, are subject to inundation, when, 
besides the actual damage and interference to traffic thereby 
brought about, some illness is generally the result. I have 
several times seen the flood water up to the axle-trees of 
carts in the lower streets of Northampton, a condition of 
things it is very desirable to avert if possible. No doubt 
many towns were formerly built in the situations where we 
now find them, because of the advantages afforded by water 
communication with other places, and although this is of less 
consequence now, on account of railways, it is impossible to 
alter the situation of a town. Valleys are often selected for 
railways, for the double reason, probably, that most towns 
are situated in or near them, and they offer less obstacles to 
engineers, and are therefore less expensive. Railways so 
situated are liable to damage from floods. 
The damage done by floods in agricultural districts is 
often of a serious nature ; animals are drowned, hay and 
other farm produce is spoiled or even washed away, and the 
herbage of the fields so injured by the deposition of earthy 
and confervoid matter on it as to be practically valueless. 
Besides the more evident damage done in this way, greater 
and more lasting injury is incurred from the sodden condition 
of the meadow lands, sometimes for a good portion of the 
year, during which time they cannot be used for stock, and a 
coarse and innutritions herbage is gradually replacing the 
better kinds of grass. 
Summer floods are much more injurious than those 
occurring in winter. The temporary and permanent injury 
to grass is greater; there are then crops to be destroyed 
or injured, and an outbreak of “rot” in sheep is ex¬ 
ceedingly likely to follow. It is now well known from 
the researches of Mr. A. P. Thomas, of Oxford, that 
the aquatic snails, Limnceus pereger, and Limnams trunca- 
tulus, are capable of acting as hosts to the liver-fluke 
(Fasciola Hepatica) during one stage of its career; and 
as these snails are likely to be spread over the fields by 
summer floods, when the moisture and temperature are both 
favourable to the development of the eggs of the fluke, an 
outbreak of “rot” is exceedingly likely to occur. 
Floods are not an unmitigated evil. Providing they come 
at the right time, and the water does not stagnate, they may 
be of great benefit. A form of irrigation which cannot be 
controlled must of necessity do damage at times, but 1 doubt 
very much whether occupiers of the meadow lands along the 
