31 



in many instances the answers say kill vast quantities of 

 Jish, as in the cases of the Allyn (tributary of the Dee), 

 " icherefor 14 miles eteryjish in Dec, 1866, was destroyed 

 ly petroleum toorksP^ the TJsh, of which it is remarked, it 

 is so polluted that " unless some legislative measure stop the 

 evil the ohjects of the Salmo?i Fishery Acts and the 

 labours of the Conservators will he thrown aivay," the Exe, 

 ■where paper mills " kill bushels offish y" the Trent, where 

 (at Burton) for several years past, "fish have been poisoned 

 by tons y" the Aire, which is " so surcharged with immense 

 " quantities of coal dust and dye, that hundreds of salmon 

 " are choked and blind-folded by the poisonous salt ;" and 

 the Wear, of which the answer says, " it is dreadfully pol- 

 " luted by lead mines, collieries, iron, gas, and chemical 

 " works, paper mills, sewerage, and every abomination a 

 " thickly populated district can put into it." 



This Report gives therefore a total of at least 32 rivers 

 thus poisoned and polluted, very many of them horribly. 



As to the pollutions by lead mines iNIr. Buckland at 

 page 4, says, " the measures taken to obviate this terrible 

 evil have been but slight," he points however to the 

 answer of the Tamar, page 54, where it is stated that — 



" The Devon Great Consols Mine Company (whose 

 " good example was noticed in Mr. Ffennell's 4th Report, 

 " page 24, ante), have made catch pits, &c., and are 



* Referring to this fearful case, Mr. Mostyn Owen, the honorary 

 secretary of the Dee Fishery Board, told the great Salmon Fishery 

 Congress at South Kensington, in June 1 867, that a skilful analyst, 

 after analysing the water, had declared to him that the river which 

 w^as thus polluted, and which supplied all Chester with its drinking 

 water, " micjht any day bring down such a quantity of deadly jmson 

 " that half Chester MIGHT BE KILLED BY IT ;" Mr. Owen adding that 

 the Fishery Board had done what they could to obtain a conviction 

 against the ofi'enders, but had failed from a mere technicality. And 

 in reference to this same river, Lord Robert Montagu informed the 

 House of Commons, in the course of his speech in moving the second 

 reading of the " River Waters Protection " Bill in 1865, that " the 

 " honorary secretary of the Dee Fishery Association had preserved a 

 " bottle of 2^M/-e parajin made from the water taken from the Dee 

 " below the petroleum v/orks."— Hansard, vol. 177, 3rd Series, page 

 1316. 



