Page:A protest against the extension of railways in the Lake District - Somervell (1876).djvu/82

 by has killed everything with which it has come into contact. There is no boat on the river, only here and there barges sank at the back-waters and in the creeks, with their lines just above the water, telling of work done and homes lived in, but now gradually rotting away in filth. Further on a drain or beck discharges its contents, steaming with vapour, but the river is too foul to be coloured by the accession of any tributary, however filthy. Here is the evidence of a witness in the employment of the Aire and Calder Company:—'He saw a quantity of water containing hair and other sediment flowing from some tanks in the defendant's works over a large sump, and thence into Sheepscar beck. The sump was almost filled with a pulpy sediment. In the vicinity of the point where this discharge entered the beck there were several cart-loads of sediment in the bed of the stream. The sediment looked like lime and hair mixed. The water in the beck was white as far down as he could see.' Not a bird is to be heard or seen; not that this is a matter to regret, as an ill-looking lad sneaks by with a single-barrelled gun. No animal life cheers the naturalist. No hare or partridge ventures near a population which would sally forth with every known implement of warfare to destroy it. The attested neighbourhood of a rabbit would empty a colliery for a week. Everything in your walks in such a country calls up some unpleasant association. The landscape reminds you of the illustrations in Dickens's novels; the ponds are those in which Bill Sykes tried to drown his dog. It is neither town nor country. Miserable cottages are being built in rows to arrive at which you must plunge through a slough of black mud. Damp, ill-built, and ill-drained, disease clings to them, and family after family is compelled to leave. It is impossible to build houses with profit, and the result is overcrowding. Sanitary inspection is in many places unknown or useless. The Inspector is appointed as a matter of form, but is not called upon to furnish the Board with a report. The Barnsley Times gives an account of the village of Ardsley which is probably