SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 463 



three-quarters of a mile north from the Conishead Priory 

 mussel bed. Two other small sewers enter the Channel; 

 one (conveying domestic sewage) from Conishead Priory 

 (an hotel), and the other (conveying a manufacturing 

 effluent) comes from a chemical works. All this sewage 

 must flow down the channel during the time of low 

 water, when the volume of water in the channel is least, 

 and must pass directly over the mussel bed on Cope Scar. 

 The Barrow Channel outfalls are shown in the 

 chart. The principal one is the main Barrow sewer 

 (1 on the chart), a pipe passing out over the sands and 

 discharging at some distance above low water into a 

 shallow gutter, which runs down towards the channel, 

 and an open sewer near this pipe. These sewers 

 carry untreated sewage and serve the populations 

 of Barrow and Dalton — about 72,000 people, at 

 times. The sands in the vicinity of the outfall are 

 very foul, and at certain states of the tide, and with 

 certain winds, the smell of this foreshore saturated with 

 decomposing sewage matter is very obvious. Barrow 

 Channel from the south-east extremity of Walney 

 Island up to Barrow Docks is very narrow at low water 

 of ordinary tides, and all this sewage becomes concen- 

 trated there. It is true that even then the sewage must 

 be very greatly diluted, nevertheless we will see that the 

 pollution of the channel water, on the last of the ebb 

 tide, near Roa Island is considerable. In addition to 

 this sewer, a small one (No. 2), serving a population of 

 about 150 people on Roa Island, discharges on the fore- 

 shore to the west of the Ferry Slip. There are several 

 small mussel beds near Roa and Piel Islands, and since 

 these come adry at low water of most tides, they must 

 be exposed to very serious risks of pollution. 



Three other sewers (Nos. 3, 4 and 5) discharge on 



