THE CLYDE AND LOCH LOMOND DISTRICT 375 



pollutions other than a small amount of the dyeing by- 

 products are as yet poured straight into the river. The 

 Orr-Ewing works of the United Turkey -red Company, Limited, 

 are provided with settling tanks, which retain a certain pro- 

 portion of the heavier matter in suspension and as much grease 

 as can be skimmed off, but the effluents run out into the river 

 are still very highly coloured, so that at times the river seems 

 almost as if it were turned to blood. This alizarin coloration 

 is not per se, I believe, very harmful to fish life, but with the 

 many other impurities associated with it in the river, the stones 

 of the river-bed become coated with a greasy sludge which is 

 far from what it should be. 



Certain bleach works produce at times an effluent which 

 while being brilliantly clear, is much more harmful than the 

 highly-coloured liquids. I recollect some years ago the salmon 

 netted in the Clyde just below the mouth of the Leven were 

 found to be quite unmarketable owing to their extraordinary 

 iodoform taste ; the water also in which such fish were cooked 

 had a smell of the same kind. This was traced to chlorine from 

 the bleach works. 



All the works also boil and discharge great quantities of 

 water quite destitute of oxygen, since the process of Turkey -red 

 dyeing and scouring involves liquors at very high tempera- 

 tures ; 120 to 130 F. seem usual, and in clearing and fixing 

 processes temperatures as high as 190 and even 200 F. are 

 attained. Water, after having been raised to such tempera- 

 tures, is incapable of supporting any form of life, and as some 

 of the works seem to use as much as about three million gallons 

 of water in twenty-four hours, some idea may be gained of the 

 condition of the lower Leven. The trouble is, that while at 

 certain works fair attempts are made to reduce pollution, at 

 others there are no efforts to do so, and that as the descent of 

 the river is made, the appearance of the water becomes more 

 and more appalling, till finally all respect for it seems to be 

 lost, and it becomes nothing more or less than a sewer. Never- 

 theless I do not doubt that if all impurities were thoroughly 

 mixed and subjected to proper bacteriological filtration, the 

 river might run quite pure. The actual chemical conditions 

 present have been thoroughly established by repeated analyses. 

 We wait still for the thorough remedy. 



