THE CLYDE AND LOCH LOMOND DISTRICT 361 



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 colouration 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 an effluent which, while being 

 brilliantly clear, is much more harmful than the highly-coloured 

 liquids. I recollect a few years ago the salmon netted in the Clyde 

 just below the mouth of the Leven were found to be quite unmarket- 

 able 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 temperatures ; 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 temperatures, 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. Nevertheless 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. 



It is surprising that any salmon and sea-trout venture through 

 the Leven. Fortunately the river is only 6 miles long, and only 

 about half that distance is grossly polluted ; but in dry weather fish 

 are much sickened in the lower reaches, and are apt to become rather 

 easy prey to loafers. An angling association the Loch Lomond 

 Angling Improvement Association have in recent years extended 

 their sphere of operations from Loch Lomond and the upper streams, 

 to the Leven and the Clyde, having leased the net fishings of the 

 lower waters. A new lease for a period of five years has just been 

 entered upon, and fishings in the Gare Loch have also been taken. 



