MIKE DILGER’S WILDLIFE WATCHING
Jul 30, 2020
2 minutes
Characterised by gin-clear waters, flowing over gravelly bottoms through emerald-green beds of aquatic plants, chalk streams are a quintessential habitat of the pastoral English lowlands. Large parts of the UK don’t have these very special waterways, and that’s down to geology.
These alkaline streams and rivers are not just world-renowned for their fly-fishing, but also celebrated in culture. The writer Isaac, first published in 1653. Artist John Constable famously captured the beauty of the Hampshire Avon in his 1831 painting of Salisbury Cathedral, now on display at Tate Britain.
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