SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 471 



The manufacturing effluents mentioned above are 

 offensively smelling liquids containing organic matter 

 and sulphuretted hydrogen in solution. I examined 

 these liquids in February, 1911, and reported on the 

 question of the contamination of the Wyre to the 

 Scientific Sub-Committee Meeting of that month. It is, 

 therefore, unnecessary to refer further to them here. 

 Also the question of their discharge is not relevant to 

 this enquiry. They certainly constitute technical 

 "nuisances," and it appears that they may be regarded 

 as detrimental to the mussels in the neighbourhood of 

 their outfalls. The remedy is therefore clear. The 

 discharge can be inhibited either by the Local Authority 

 acting under the Public Health Acts, or by the Fisheries 

 Committee itself in virtue of its bye-laws. 



The sewage entering the river at Poulton-le-Fylde is 

 the only serious cause of pollution. This outfall is 

 situated about a mile distant from the Wardley's mussel 

 bed and at low water the diluted sewage must flow down 

 a series of rather narrow channels and then over the 

 shell-fish. Still the volume of water carried up the 

 Estuary on the flood tide is very large, and this must 

 dilute the sewage to an enormous extent. The mussels 

 usually fished are also shell-fish that are raked from the 

 bottom, so that they never come adry. 



(i) The Lune Mussel Beds (Chart IV). 



In February, 1904, Mr. A. Scott and I visited the 

 Estuary of the Lune and saw the mussel beds there; and 

 I collected samples of the shell-fish and reported on the 

 analyses made. This report was incorporated in a report 

 to the Lancashire County Council by the Medical Officer 

 of Health, and this also contained the results of analyses 

 made by Professor Delepine, of Manchester University. 



