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Show Utah progresses to pollution; Rivers die to equal Eastern destruction File 13 I love New England. I love to drive through the countryside of Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts. The White Mountains and the Berkshires have a charm all their own, and the harbor-dotted coast of Maine, the New Hampshire coast and the Cape are sure to create a longing to return which never leaves. Boston is one of my favorite cities, and certainly the finest city on the east coast. In short, the region is fabulous. The word might not be used by an old crusty New Hampshireman, but he knows it in his heart and you can feel it in the air. There is however, one part of New England that I do not love. While one cannot feel the coastal rivers in the air, he can certainly smell them. Once, when I was a missionary for the LDS Church, we had occasion to visit some missionaries working in a small town next to the Maine-New Hampshire border. The border itself is called the Salmon Falls River. Once it deserved the name. It was full of fish and was a fine stream. It still is full of things, but fish is not what one will find there. These missionaries were living in an apartment right next to the river. To know you were there, all one had to do was take a whiff of the various and sundry scents emanating from the water. Anyway, one of the missionaries took me to the river bank near the apartment. He pointed out a pipe which protruded into the water. Telling me to watch the pipe, he ran into the apartment and flushed some tissue paper down the toilet. About three seconds or so later it went out the pipe and into the Salmon Falls River.to flow, as the Bible tells us, into the sea, from whence the water came. Ever since then, I have devoutly hoped that only the water and none of what the Salmon Falls River gives the sea, falls gently upon my head while I wander in the spring rain. I suppose the Salmon Falls River is dead. Certainly the salmon are. There are still fish in most of the rivers here. I suppose the Jordan River is rather like the Salmon Falls. Still, our mountain streams live on. The Utah Highway Commission is out to get the Provo; which shows that while we may be years behind New England, progress is coming here too. Write your friendly highway commission for more details. |