56 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



the stream valleys which illustrates the craving of man for 

 a combination of land and water, by means of which nature 

 presents her most alluring and most picturesque aspects- 

 These streams, as a rule, have no large cities upon their banks 

 but merely here and there a small town or village. The 

 sewage from such small towns and villages may not be sufB- 

 cient to produce a visible coontaniination except possibly 

 throughout a very short distance below the sewer outfalls, 

 1)ut such contamination does ofifend the esthetic sense and un- 

 doubtedly does add some danger to public health for the 

 reason that when a stream is used for recreation purposes, 

 it will be used for boating and bathing and as a domestic 

 Supply to some extent among campers, though it may not 

 and should not be used for drinking water. It seems to the 

 writer that such streams as those deserve greater protection 

 against contamination than merely to prevent nuisance. 



No definite rules to apply to all cases can be laid down, 

 but as a general principle, it may be said that if such a stream 

 is not polluted to any material extent by storm water and 

 street wash such as would obtain in the case of a city of con- 

 siderable size located upon the banks, it would seen perfectly 

 feasible to purify the sewage to a point where it will give no 

 evidence of its existence even in the vicinity of the outlet and 

 further the sewage effluent should be sterilized by the cheap 

 and satisfactory means of using bleaching powder so as in 

 large measure to guard against dangers to health among 

 vacationists which may result from boating, bathing and 

 domestic uses of the stream water, other than for drinking. 



A very striking example of a stream serving the useful 

 function of providing recreation for vacationists is the Little 

 Miami River near Cincinnati- The lower reaches of this 

 stream are lined with cottages and tents of campers during 

 the summer months and it requires but a very little contam- 

 ination of the stream to immediately give rise to a storm of 

 complaint. There are few villages located on this stream and 

 these contribute some minor manufacturing wastes and a 

 negligible quantity of street wash. If the sewage from these 

 towns were purified, and it is understood that purification 

 works have been ordered by the Ohio State Board of Health, 

 the stream could be preserved for what appears to the writer 

 to be its highest and most valuable use, nameTy, recreation. 



Fish and Shell Fish 



Many streams are valuable to the community on account 

 of their fish life. It mav be said in general that thbre is' 

 rarely necessity for so polluting a stream as to endanger fish 

 life, though there are some circumstances where the continu- 



