1902-3.] Sawdust and Fish Life. 429 



this is very improbable, and could only be possible in cases where a 

 river has been completely filled with it." 



4. "The refuse from the saw mills, in many places, interferes with 

 the fisheries." 



For the next eight years we find little or nothing in the reports of 

 the United States Fish Commissioner regarding the ill-effects of saw- 

 dust. In an appendix to his report for 1887, entitled " Fisheries of the 

 Great Lakes in 1885," we find the following expression of opinion from 

 Hugh M. Smith and Merwin Marie Snell : " The fishermen appear to 

 be considerably hampered in their operations by the presence of great 

 quantities of drift wood and sawdust from the mills. At times this 

 debris covers the lake (Michigan) for miles around, and very seriously 

 interferes with the seining and netting. The most disastrous effects, 

 however, are seen on the fish themselves, especially during the spawning 

 season. Spawning grounds formerly existed in this vicinity, but they 

 have been deserted for some years owing to the deposit of sawdust 

 thereon." 



On November 29th, 1888, there was started in Forest and 

 Stream a very remarkable correspondence, which lasted nearly a year. 

 The general topic was the effect of sawdust upon trout. The writers 

 lived in Canada, the New England States, and some in the west as far 

 as California. Both sides of the question were presented with great 

 vigor. Most of the correspondents were evidently keen sportsmen and 

 close observers of nature, and the only regret one feels in reading 

 through these letters is that some of the men did not test their ob- 

 servations and conclusions by experim^enting with sawdust. The 

 following is a typical letter : — 



A CENTURY OF SAWDUST. 

 Editor Forest and Stream. 



I was delighted with the intelHofent way in which your correspondent " Piscator " 

 handled th3 sawdust question in your issue of December 27th. It is a comfort to listen 

 when a well-informed person speaks, but in these days of callow pretension experience 

 is usually elbowed back from the front. 



In my opinion the famous Mill Brook, of Plainfield, Mass., which has a record of a 

 century as the finest trout water in the Hampshire hills, supplies those very conditions 

 and corroborative data which " Piscator " declares are essential to determine what 

 pernicious effect the presence of sawdust has upon the denizens of mill streams. Here 

 Is a water power which carried no less than thirteen manufactories fifty years ag-o. 

 These included a tannery, a sawmill and factories for making brush and broom handles, 

 whipstocks and cheese and butter boxes, all of which discharged, more or less, sawdust 

 and shavings into the streams, to say nothing of three satinet factories and a felt hat 

 factory, whose waste must have been deleterious to fish life. 



