474 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



We see, then, that the sources of pollution of the 

 Lune are very numerous. We return later to the 

 question of the effect of all this discharge on the shell- 

 fish beds. 



(5) The Mussel Beds in the Estuary of the Conway. 



(Chart V). 

 The question of the pollution of the mussels taken 

 from the Estuary of the River Conway is, of course, one 

 which has now passed out of the hands of the Sea- 

 Fisheries Committee. The Corporation of the Borough 

 applied last year (1911) for a Provisional Order under 

 the Sea-Fisheries Act of 1868, which would enable them 

 to improve, maintain and regulate the mussel fishery in 

 a specified area. An enquiry was held at Conway in 

 December, 1911, and in August of 1912 the Act of 

 Parliament (Ch. CXLL, 2 & 3, Geo. V.) confirming this 

 Order received the Royal Assent. The Order enables the 

 Corporation to make regulations, to erect storage and 

 cleansing ponds, and to impose a royalty not exceeding 

 Is. 6d. per cwt. of mussels. Really the royalty payable 

 by the fishermen is at present fixed at 3d. per bag of 

 mussels exceeding three inches in length, and 2d. per 

 bag of smaller mussels. The object of the Order is to 

 give the Corporation power to arrange that the mussels, 

 which are at present dangerously polluted by sewage 

 bacteria, shall in future be relaid in pure sea water for 

 such a time as will enable the shell-fish to cleanse 

 themselves from the bacteria. Experiments made by 

 Professor Klein, of Bartholomew's Hospital, in London, 

 and by myself in the Estuary of the Conway, have shown 

 that if a grossly polluted mussel be relaid in uninfected 

 sea water for a period of about four days, over 90 per 

 cent, of the contained bacteria become eliminated — 



