370 Influence of Mines upon Land and Livestock 



The river valleys which have suffered most are those of the Ystwyth, 

 Rheidol and Clarach. The injurious effects are very marked also in the 

 upper reaches of the Teifi., but below Tregaron the Teifi valley does not 

 appear to have suffered much. Along the banks of the Leri, Clettwr, 

 Einon and Afon Ddu only relatively small areas of land have been 

 seriously afiected. 



There appears to be a tendency to attribute the pollution of the 

 rivers to the waste water which flows into them from the dressing floors 

 of active mines. It is true that this is a contributory cause, but, consistent 

 with retaining economic working conditions for the mines, it seems to be 

 almost unavoidable. 



But most of the Cardiganshire rivers may be polluted even after all 

 mining operations on their banks have ceased. In the neighbourhood 

 of many of the mines where much "washing" has been done enormous 

 heaps of "sand" and "sHme" are left close to the banks of the rivers. 

 No precautions have been taken to prevent the heavy rains, So common 

 in the hilly districts, from washing down large quantities of this poisonous 

 mine refuse to the rivers every year. See Photograph "U." 



It must also be borne in mind that the river beds are now covered 

 with a layer of mine refuse ranging in depth from a few inches to several 

 feet. At every flood time some of this is brought into suspension and 

 spread over the adjoining fields. See Table IV. 



It should be noted, however, that this sediment is probably, to a 

 considerable extent, to be accounted for by the fact that years ago when 

 there were no state regulations with reference to the disfiosal of mine 

 refuse, it was customary at many of the mines to tip the whole of the 

 "slime" and "sand" directly into the rivers. 



Influence of Mine Refuse upon Crops. 



The intensity of the deleterious influence upon land varies from shght 

 effects hardly apparent on a mere casual observation to complete steril- 

 ity where the soil remains absolutely bare, not even producing weeds. 

 Between these extremes there are to be seen all degrees of unproductive- 

 ness according to the amount and nature of injurious matter present. 

 The harmful effects are observable on all farm crops, both quality and 

 bulk of produce being unfavourably affected, though the effect is more 

 marked with some crops than others. 



(a) Effects upon grass land. 



Pastures which are affected usually present a very characteristic 

 appearance, especially during certain periods of the year. In most 



