COUNTRY LIFE. .
Mom than abundant rains have at any rate done one service: they_ have robbed of their favourite excuse the inefficient guardians of our polluted rivers. It has been a popular device, especially in the Home Counties, to hold up the rivers 'for the forming of arlificial lakes. 'The bright patches of water were a guide to airborne enemies, and were drained back into the river. Pollution was attributed—plausibly, but not with complete truth—to the piled refuse thus decanted. The last of this his now reached the sea and the excuse can no longer hold. Another must be found, for the poisoning continues. One ingenious fisherman on the Lea devised a cage for small trout, so that he could judge of the whole. someness of the water by the health of the captives. In the past the Commissioners have had samples of the water analysed, and it would be interesting to know what analyses would show, though the diagnosis
if we may judge from the past—would not necessarily be followed by any curative treatment. The urban idea that our rivers are no more than convenient sewers still seems to prevail. Some people have expressed fears that the water-cress beds may suffer and prove a danger to human health. Happily, the custom is to make these beds about the little sprin0 that bubble out in the Valleys, and these would not be affected in. any way by the general poisoning of the main stream. The little industry has this advantage, that it reaches its height in mid-winter.
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