112 DUBLIN NATURAL HISTOKT SOCIETY. 



can give it no milder name — system of sewerage, in which, under the 

 false idea that the foul matter will be dissipated in the tide, we carry 

 the outlets of our sewers down into the sea, this evil must increase ; nor 

 can it cease until some method is devised of destroying the filth in a 

 series of cesspools, or by some means or other rendering it innocuous be- 

 fore its passage into the pure water. I am sure the chemists, if their 

 attention were called to the matter, could assist us here, and thus pre- 

 vent the mischief which has arisen, and is arising, not merely to our 

 own crab and lobster fisheries, but also to more important fisheries, — 

 many of the fishes proper, I have not the smallest doubt, having been 

 driven from Dublin Bay by this. Under the present system, the natural 

 course of events is, the solid matters are carried out to sea in the first 

 instance, and then either returned again in a minute state of division, 

 but not the less hurtful on that account, and spread upon our beaches, 

 or else, meeting with a cross-current, deposited as a bank of fetid, life- 

 less mud. Had I time to enter fully into this branch of the subject, I 

 could bring many instances forward, from my dredging researches, in 

 corroboration — one must suffice. Few of us are unaware of the lament- 

 able change which the carrying the main sewer of Kingstown out at the 

 back of the west pier entailed on the Salthill strand ; and the odours, not 

 quite Sabean, which now greet the nose on a summer's evening, will 

 prove how mistaken the popular system of sewerage is, — the filth being 

 merely removed from one limited locality to be extensively spread broad- 

 cast on the beaches, slowly but surely poisoning every thing round there. 

 Legislative enactment might meet this difficulty, but I am doubtful on 

 the point. Another cause, doubtless, of the falling oif — to which, per- 

 haps, the destruction of the prawn fishery at Dalkey is due — arises from 

 changes in the submarine banks, due to violent storms, which have de- 

 stroyed many favourite feeding grounds ; in fact, since a heavy gale 

 many years ago, the molluscs, &c., thrown up on many of our beaches 

 have been totally altered as to numbers and species. There is one re- 

 medy which, supposing the sewage difficulty removed, might restore 

 our feeding grounds : this is the breeding of crabs and lobsters in stews 

 into which the sea has full access, and from which the young could es- 

 cape or be transferred at the proper season into localities more fitted for 

 their adult growth. These remarks are intended to apply more parti- 

 cularly to the grounds about Kingstown, Dalkey, and Bullock, as of 

 these I have a personal knowledge ; but they are generally applicable 

 to all localities, and therefore take no notice of trawling. Of the num- 

 bers of these animals consumed in the Dublin markets I have no accurate 

 means of speaking ; but judging by the displays in the shop windows, 

 and the number of boats employed in the fisheries, it must be consi- 

 derable enough to render the subject brought forward in this communi- 

 cation of considerable importance. I hope at some future time to return 

 to the subject. If this communication should be the means of calling 

 the attention of those more capable of treating of its details to this most 

 important subject, the object I had in view in bringing it forward will 

 have been accomplished. 



