THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. | By the overflowing of Whittlesea Mere, and other great reservoirs of fish, the whole country is plentifully stocked with them.' After an overflow of Whittlesea Mere, when the waters retired, they were said to have 'folded ;' and at that time the dykes and rivers would be found full of fish, which had escaped from the Mere during the flood, and afforded ample harvests to the Fen-men. Another very considerable source of profit was the Smelt-fishery. Large quantities of these fish were taken, then as now, when they came up the rivers to spawn, and a single share in this fishery was known to amount to fifty pounds. "Our Fen-Parson refers to the malarious emanations from the sodden Fen, and draws a loathsome picture of the 'Genius' of the place, 'pale Febris,' as 'she shiver'd o'er a cow-dung* smoky fire,' and laments the absence of health, even when plenty smiles the fairest:- | |
| "'The moory soil, the wat'ry atmosphere, With damp, unhealthy moisture fills the air. Thick, stinking fogs, and noxious vapours fall, Agues and coughs are epidemical.' |
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| It is probable that malarious fevers would be more prevalent during the drainage of the Fens than when they were still more or less in a state of nature ; and the writer has vivid recollections of his sufferings as a boy from intermittent' fever, which was at that time prevalent at Lynn, it may be in consequence of the cutting of the Eau brink canal, which led the course of the river Ouse direct from St. Germains to the town of Lynn, leaving the old and sinuous course of the river to wharp up. The cut, which was opened in 1821, had been completed twenty years ; but as Dr. Maclean** has shown, marshes are not, as a rule, dangerous, when abundantly covered with water ; and that it is only when the water's level is lowered, and the saturated soil is exposed to the drying influence of a high temperature, and the direct rays of the sun, that the poison is evolved in abundance ; the circumstances were, therefore, at that time, most favourable for the dissemination of the malarial germs, not only the freshly-turned soil and margins of the cut being exposed, but also the old bed of the river which took many years to drain and bring into cultivation. | ||
| *'In this treeless country cow-dung was carefully dried and stored for winter fuel. **"Quain's 'Dictionary of Medicine:' article 'Malaria."' | ||
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