628 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



large masses of sawdust have been noticed on the bottom ; this applies 

 to all the streams of these districts, but especially to those which do not 

 have a swift current. 



"As an illustration of the deplorable condition to which salmon 

 streams can be reduced by an accumulation of sawdust, we may men- 

 tion the Undal Kiver, which in a few years will probably not have a 

 single salmon. Its bed along its entire course is covered with sawdust 

 to such a degree as to render many of the fishing stations entirely 

 unprofitable, as the nets cannot be hauled ashore ; and in those fishing 

 stations which are still used, such large masses are hauled ashore with 

 the nets that, after the nets have been lauded with much difficulty, it 

 becomes hard to determine whether there are fish in them or not, so 

 that the net has first to be trodden on in order to ascertain the fact (!). 

 All the people living along the banks of this stream have been obliged 

 to dig wells, which was frequently a very difficult undertaking, because 

 the water of the stream has become unfit for drinking purposes.* When 

 later in summer all this mass of sawdust commences to decay, there is 

 no doubt that its effluvia will be injurious to public health. 



" Under these circumstances it will not be surprising that there have 

 recently been found in several streams dead salmon whose bodies were 

 filled with sawdust, and that fresh spawn and young fish are exposed 

 to special danger from this cause. This is probably also the reason why 

 young salmon are no longer seen below the Melhus stream, which flows 

 into Undal Eiver about one (Norwegian) mile above its mouth. Even 

 small flounders, which are among our hardiest fish aud which formerly 

 were abundant in the above-mentioned part of the river, have entirely 

 disappeared, which seems to be sufficient proof of the fact that sawdust 

 is injurious to the salmon, which of all fish can least stand impure water. 



'•In the other rivers of the district matters are not quite so bad as in 

 Undal Eiver, but still the condition of affairs is by no means satis- 

 factory. Under these circumstances it would not seem advisable to 

 establish hatching apparatus, for profitable as such apparatus might 

 otherwise be, it is to be feared that here it would not answer its pur- 

 pose, as a disproportionately large quantity of the newly-hatched fish 

 would doubtless soon die in the poisoned water. 



" From other places in this district complaints were received that the 

 sawdust made the beds of rivers shallow to an inconvenient degree, 

 and that during freshets the meadows and fields bordering on the rivers 

 were injured by the deposits of sawdust. 



" In view of the dangerous dimensions which the above-described evil 

 has assumed in this district, aud in consideration of the fact that circu- 



* It seems that tkis observation is, in part at least, based on a misunderstanding. 

 According to a written report by the largest landed proprietor in Northern Undal, the 

 water of the river is at times not lit to drink on account of the sawdust. But the 

 wells in this district were, as far as he knew, dug before sawdust got into the river in 

 any considerable quantity. In Southern Undal the condition of the river was, accord- 

 ing to oral reports from the same man, very much the same. 



