96 
FISH-FATALITY IN THE RIYER COLNE. 
Prof. Harker, of the Agricultural College at Cirencester, says that 
he thinks it possible that the fish in the Colne were asphyxiated or 
drowned by the water being deprived of the absorbed oxygen, and 
that filth, dirt, sewage, and dead weeds devour the oxygen, becom¬ 
ing themselves oxidised. Such fish,- he says, as pike and carp, which 
live at the bottom of the water, have a greater power of living in 
polluted or stagnant rivers than trout or other fish which usually live 
in running streams. 
I do not think that any one cause will account for all the fish- 
fatality in the Colne. That at Progmore last July was probably 
due to poison or some noxious material getting into the river. The 
fish at Hamper Mill were, I think, destroyed by the overflow of 
sewage from the sewage-farm after a flood. In some parts of the 
water the fish die from want of air; they are suffocated, or, more 
correctly, asphyxiated. Such fish will mostly recover when placed 
in fresh water, which they would not do had they taken poison. I 
do not think that lime or tar is the cause of the mischief. Is it 
not possible that the Watford Piscators preserve the waters too 
strictly, allowing the fish to be overcrowded, having no room to 
breathe ? 
The practical point is, What is to be done ? We must keep our 
river as pure as possible. We must not allow it to be made a sewer, 
or a receptacle for decomposing remains of animals and plants. And 
finally we must, if possible, allow the water to flow at least an hour 
a day. In fact we ought to pay more attention to the state of the 
river than we do to the state of our roads and footpaths. 
