24 



POLLUTION OF THE TYNE, 



By a. meek. 



Northumbrians do not need to be reminded of the many 

 beauties of the river to the west of the city, nor of the importance 

 of the industries which occupy its banks from the city do\\^iwards. 

 Most of them are aware also that the river above Newcastle con- 

 tinues to yield fishes native to its waters, and migratory fishes, 

 or the more enterprising of them, which find their way from the sea . 

 But it is perhaps only occasionally that they allow themselves to 

 reflect that the growth of industries in the neighbourhood of New- 

 castle is threatening the exclusion of these migratory fish from the 

 river. 



It is known to the members of the Tpie Salmon Conservancy 

 and to others who are famihar with the Tjaie at Newcastle that 

 every year many salmon are poisoned when they are attempting 

 to pass Newcastle to gain the pure water above on the way to the 

 spawning ground. The death rate is increased in dry seasons when 

 the efiluents are poured into a deep river which requires a great 

 flow from above to dilute it sufficiently to give the migrants a chance 

 of passing the region. 



This year (1917) another serious aspect of the effects of the 

 pollution at Newcastle was brought to my notice by the Laboratory 

 attendant, John George McKay. The river at the time, the 

 beginning of May, was very low from a spell of dry weather, and 

 on the 9th of May he brought me a smolt and told me that numbers 

 had been picked up at the sides of the Tyne just above Redheugh 

 Bridge. I j^aid a visit to the region on the 11th, and got ample 

 confirmation of this from the boys who had found them. I 

 obtained fourteen specimens altogether, measuring 12 to 18-7 

 cm., mostly salmon smolts which had spent two winters in the river 

 and were on their way to the sea. Many smolts must have 

 successfully managed to get past Newcastle in April, and it was 

 only the late migrants of the season which were destroyed. It is 



