454 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



above Aberamfrach Harbour, and on tbe southern side of 

 the channel opposite the latter place. There are also 

 mussels in the channel seaward from Trwyn-y-Gwaith. 

 I did not see these latter shellfish : they are said to be 

 small and badly-nourished. 



Samples were taken from near the quay at the 

 western side of Aberamfrach Harbour, and from the 

 channel close to the beacon on the end of the breakwater 

 at Trwyn-y-Gwaith. These mussels were raked from the 

 sea-bottom. Samples of water were taken from the 

 surface of the channel at Aberamfrach, at the bridge, 

 lower down, and at Trwyn-y-Gwaith. 



It is improbable that the mussels in the harbour or 

 higher up can be affected by the sewage from No. 1 

 outfall. This is a considerable distance away and there 

 are extensive sandbanks, rising to a height of 9 feet above 

 low water of spring tides, between it and the harbour. 

 The ebb tide flowing from off these sandbanks and out 

 from the estuary would prevent the sewage from entering 

 the channel at any state of ebb tide, while on the first 

 of the flood it would tend to drift to the north. If the 

 sewage from all parts of Barmouth could be diverted into 

 this sewer there would be little likelihood of the con- 

 tamination of the mussels in the channel. But this 

 would be impossible, I believe, without pumping. 



As it is, the mussels in the harbour are exposed to 

 immediate and gross pollution from the outfall sewer 

 No. 2. The bacteriological contamination here — about 

 6,000 intestinal organisms per mussel — is practically the 

 same as in the worst part of the estuary of the Lune at 

 Lancaster; but the pollution is really more serious at 

 Barmouth, for the mussels are very much nearer to the 

 source of pollution. It is too serious, I think, to allow 

 of these mussels being used as human food, The mussels 



