American Fisheries Society 191 



sewage becomes beneficial to the fish in proportion to the readiness with 

 which it is turned into nitrates and nitrites. This change takes place 

 most quickly on land, nex't in fresh water, and next in brackish water, 

 and last of all in salt water. So the very last place in which we should 

 put sewage, or the waste of manufactures, is in the sea or in salt or 

 brackish water. The common municipal practice is to put this refuse 

 in the sea, either at the shore or as far out in the sea as convenient, 

 but that is the very worst place in which it could be put. 



Mr. S. F. Fullerton, St. Paul, Minn. : I can add my testimony, with- 

 out fear of contradiction, as to sawdust killing fish. My home State of 

 Minnesota is a lumber state and I know positively of three good trout 

 streams that have been destroyed by sawdust. There is no question but 

 that sawdust did it, because the volume of water is as great today as 

 it ever was. 



Mr. Kelly Evans, Toronto : Perhaps some of the commissioners 

 could tell us as to the deleterious effect on trout life of refuse (bark, 

 etc.) left in logging streams. 



Mr. Titcomb : I had no question in my own mind as to the dele- 

 terit)us effect of sawdust, but Professor Forbes was so clear in his 

 paper I thought I had missed that point. There is no question of the 

 deleterious effects from logging. We find that trout disappear in 

 streams where logging is conducted. I presume the waters are mostly 

 trout streams that Mr. Evans refers to; after logging ceases the trout 

 reappear and you can get good trout fishing again. I do not pretend to 

 say what it is that affects the fish. 



Mr. W. E. Meehan, Harrisburg, Pa. : That is the experience with 

 trout streams in northern Pennsylvania. Wherever logging is going on 

 the streams become almost entirely depleted of trout. Like Mr. Titcomb, 

 I do not pretend to say whether it was caused by the running of the 

 logs or the breaking out of the splash dams. Unquestionably much of 

 the damage was done by sawdust, especially where it became deposited; 

 but with the cutting away of forests, the abandonment of most of the 

 lumbering, and the restocking of those streams, they have become good 

 trout waters again. Many that had become almost entirely depopulated 

 are today nearly as full as they were half a century ago; and that is 

 especially the case in one of the counties that was most roughly treated 

 by the lumbering interests many years ago. Those streams today have 

 reached such a point that very many of the anglers no longer keep to 

 what is called the minimum limit of the size of the fish which may be 

 caught, which in Pennsylvania is six inches, but discard anything under 

 seven or eight inches, and still take their legal number of fish per day. 

 That is the record in several northern counties where lumbering in- 

 terests were carried on and where the streams became almost entirely 

 depleted. 



Mr. John E. Gunckel, Toledo, Ohio: Do I have to furnish an affi- 

 davit of what I am going to say? For twenty years since I have been 

 a member of this Society I have been hearing about sawdust. Now, in 

 the city of Toledo, Ohio, we lack 20,000 population of what we expected, 

 and that is why I say we are in Ohio. There is a stream there, the 



