Noxious Gases versus Vegetation. 691 



in the ground before being assailed by these gases, I do not find them 

 do so when planted in an atmosphere vitiated by them. Prompted 

 by the hope that poplar might succeed where nothing else would, we 

 planted fifteen acres with it where larches had failed, but very few 

 have done any good, and more than half are dead ; the ground is a 

 cup-shaped hollow with one outlet, which unfortunately also serves 

 as an inlet for the smoke and fumes from an adjacent ironstone mine. 

 There are also two brick and tile works close to the plantation, and the 

 fumes from them have the same smell as from the calcining of the 

 ironstone. The clay of which the bricks are made is of a dark-brown 

 colour, contains a large amount of limestone, and has to be ground 

 in a mill before being made into bricks, as the limestone would burst 

 them when burnt and exposed to damp. There is a large amount of 

 coal used in burning the bricks, but there must be sulphur in the clay, 

 to account for the disgusting fumes emanating from them. There are 

 about two acres of elm, forty years old, within one hundred yards of 

 these works, and the tops of the trees are more than half dead. There 

 is another plantation north of the first-named, and separated from it 

 by the Saltburn and Whitby Eoad. It is now exposed to the fumes 

 from the kilns and the smoke from two ironstone mines, one at each 

 end of the plantation, and both using fans driven by steam for forcing 

 fresh air into the mines and driving out the foul air as well. Since 

 these fans were erected the trees have ceased to make wood, except 

 very small spray on the branches, with few leaves, and these of a 

 sickly appearance, and very small. There are several poplars in 

 different parts of this wood that are in no way tainted, but the ash, 

 elm, oak, plane, and elder, are fading yearly, and in three years hence 

 at most will totally succumb and have to be cut, and it is even doubtful 

 if the oak will part with its bark then. The larch, Scotch fir, common 

 and silver spruces were cut two years ago, all dead. 



On the estate of Upleatham there is a plantation about one mile 

 long, facing Marske by the Sea. At the bottom of the slope on 

 which the plantation stands there are three ironstone mines, with a 

 fan and two engines working at each mine, and before the fans were 

 used large circular shafts were sunk, at the bottom of which large 

 furnaces were kept going night and day for ventilating the mines. 

 These were placed almost close to the wood, and one of them at a 

 part of the wood composed entirely of larch, which it killed. The 

 other part of the wood is composed of beech, oak, elm, ash, and birch, 

 with a few larches mixed among the others, but most of the latter are 

 dead, and the hardwood has ceased to make any perceptible growth. 

 The plantation stands high above the works, the slope is very steep, 

 but is exposed to the north, north-east, and north-west winds, which 

 drive the smoke and gases up the slope till the wood is often hidden 



