POISONED RIVERS. 117 



destroyed by the mines. Lead-works are about to be 

 worked on the Wye, to the great alarm of the proprie- 

 tors of salmon-fisheries; and the same apprehension 

 exists as to the Conway, and other rivers of great natu- 

 ral capabilities. We regret to perceive that the Com- 

 missioners deem the extinction of the Cornwall fisheries 

 inevitable. They are fortunately not of the highest 

 value, and to prefer them to the great mining interests 

 which form the staple industry of a wealthy county, 

 would no doubt be to preserve salmon at a preposter- 

 ous cost. Still the question recurs, Is it right that, 

 without compensation, mines should be permitted to 

 poison rivers ? Here there is evidently much troubled 

 water in which the lawyer will know how to profitably 

 ply his craft. And if there be any means of rendering 

 innocuous these poisonous effluxes from mines, we hold 

 that the legislature should insist upon their being em- 

 ployed. We are glad to find M. Moggridge, Esq., ex- 

 pressing a confident opinion that the construction of 

 filters might not only save the destruction of animal 

 life, but prove remunerative to the miner, by enabling 

 him to save mineral ingredients which he now throws 

 away. On the Towy he maintains that things go on 

 as they did in the quicksilver mines of India, where, 

 for centuries, they threw away the most valuable part 

 of their produce. The comparative amount of capital 

 employed in manufactures renders it difficult to hinder 

 the pollution of salmon rivers without hampering trade 

 and industry in a manner which the Commissioners 

 deem unjustifiable for the sake of preserving salmon. 

 " The interests of manufactures, nationally considered, 

 must be deemed paramount to those of fisheries ; but 

 in like manner, as in the other case, we consider that a 

 watchful eye should be kept over the introduction of 

 new causes of pollution ; that the rivers hitherto uncon- 

 taminated should be kept from harm ; that all such 

 nuisances as may without undue sacrifice be preventible, 

 should be prohibited, and, if they arise, checked in the 



