

[7] IS SAWDUST INJURIOUS TO THE FISHERIES? 631 



ble that in no other part of Xorway are the injuries as serious as in the 

 above-mentioned districts. But there is hardly any timbered region 

 where the refuse from the saw-mills is entirely without injurious influ- 

 ence on the salmon and trout fisheries, and in many places these injuries 

 are very considerable. Aside from the Tistedal liiver, which has almost 

 entirely been depleted of its formerly numerous salmon, we must men- 

 tion, among the rivers suffering - from the same evil, the Glommen, the 

 Sandvik. the Lier, and the Stenkjar. 



The above-mentioned facts are, in my opinion, urgent reasons why 

 the owners of salmon fisheries should endeavor to have this important 

 matter regulated bylaw in the near future. Such legislation should aim 

 at putting a stop to the habit which now prevails to an alarming degree 

 of throwing sawdust or other refuse from the sawmills into the river. 

 It was therefore a great satisfaction to learn that the commission for 

 examining the condition of our rivers, appointed by royal order of Janu- • 

 ury 22, 1870, has, in its preliminary draft of a law, from other reasons 

 than regard for the fisheries, arrived at the belief that legislation in this 

 matter is urgently demanded (see articles 21 to 25 of draft). With regard 

 to the minority report of the committee, which expresses the opinion 

 that any law compelling the mills to collect their sawdust should (when 

 applied to saw-mills which are not already compelled to do so by the 

 law of August 12, 1848) become applicable only when a new saw-mill 

 is put up, or any of those at present in operation undergo a change, 

 I must express a difference of opinion. I think that such a law by no 

 means meets the wants of the salmon fisheries, as in some places the 

 evil has assumed such dimensions that a law which merely prevents its 

 spreading any more will, in those districts which suffer most, be of little 

 or no use. "What the salmon fisheries need are regulations which can be 

 immediately applied to the existing saw mills, therefore regulations like 

 those proposed by the majority of the commission. The difficulties and 

 expenses connected with the proposed collecting of the sawdust are very 

 small, as will appear from a circumstance reported to me during the 

 summer of 1870 by a very reliable man, namely, that one of the owners 

 in part of a large saw-mill on the Undal Eiver has made an offer to the 

 other owners to gather and carry away, at his own expense, ail the saw- 

 dust from this mill, on condition that he may consider the sawdust as 

 his undisputed property, and this man, as I was told, has no other use 

 for sawdust than that to which it is put by every farmer. 



It is to be feared, however, that the draft of a law prepared by the 

 above-mentioned commission, which, so far, is only preliminary, will not 

 become a fixed law and be enforced for a long time to come on account 

 of the many and great difficulties in the way of its execution. But on 

 account of the threatening dimensions which the pollution of the rivers- 

 by sawdust has assumed, especially in our most important salmon dis- 

 tricts, it will be dangerous to let more time than is absolutely necessary 

 go by before attempts are made to regulate this matter by legislation* 



