the water needed. There can be little doubt that powers will be sought to carry the extension still further, if this can be done with a profitable result. The full significance of this change may not, at first sight, be recognised by every one. There can be no object in raising the level of the Lake, or in extending its area, but that of creating a reserve during the wet season, to be drawn upon in summer. At that season then, when the District is visited by Tourists, the Lake will be reduced to its old dimensions, and for every acre of water remaining, there will be an equal extent of mud and rotting water-weeds, or of desolate stony ground, like the bed of an Italian river, which will form a margin to the lake, round its whole circumference; and this to replace the present shore, which nature has been beautifying for centuries, and harmonizing, by means of moss and lichen, and varied herbage, with the watery surface within, and the rocks and hills without.
It is very easy to sneer at opposition to such schemes as this, calling it sentimental and selfish, but, even if it be conceded that no considerations are valid, the worth of which cannot be estimated in £ s. d., it can easily be shown that, tried by this test, the charms, for the effacement of which this scheme is a bold initiatory step, are of no trifling value. We have no price-current for the beauties with which God has clothed our world, but the immense sums which people, of all degrees and classes, spend every year, to procure for themselves, in one way or other, the enjoyment which these beauties (or often the most feeble imitation of them) can afford, would be sufficient, one would think, in itself, to prove to the most unsentimental mind, that the best and rarest materials for such enjoyments are very far from worthless. In this market we have buyers, and no sellers; and, in the present case, the fact is unfortunate.
