Stream Poulutiok 61 



and while I realize the danger in attempting to comment on such 

 conditions from memory when the interval of time is so large and 

 the opportunities for influencing one's recollection of conditions 

 are so numerous, yet I am confident that after all allowance has 

 been made it is possible and just to say that the situation has been 

 very greatly modified and that such a modification represents a 

 distinct deterioration of the stream. 



A careful study of the upper Hudson and its tributaries was 

 made for the state of New York some years ago with special refer- 

 ence to the question of pollution.* Records are given in it of the 

 turbidity of the water and other characteristic features in its 

 appearance. What was said concerning the river at that date is 

 even more strikingly true at the present time. To these observa- 

 tions may be added some comments on the biological situation. In 

 the stretch from the state dam at Troy to the Waterford dam the 

 water is very dark in color and does not carry in any conspicuous 

 fashion floating masses of scum or material released from the 

 bottom. However, there is scanty evidence of plant growth or 

 of the organisms that ordinarily inhabit such waters and that 

 previously could be collected in great abundance more especially 

 at the so-called riffs where the water was somewhat broken in its 

 rapid progress over rocky or stony bottoms. 



The most conspicuous industries of the upper Hudson are the 

 paper and pulp mills. The character of their wastes is well known 

 and has been the subject of numerous special studies. The most 

 extensive of these was published by the United States Geological 

 Survey in 1909^ At present the situation does not differ greatly 

 from that described previously, although works recently constructed 

 by the state of New York have modified conditions radically in 

 certain respects which are significant in their bearing on the 

 biological aspect of the situation. 



Effects of Canalization 



The region has been transformed by a series of dams into what 

 is substantially a canal. The water backs up from each dam 

 almost to the foot of the one next above it and the intervening 

 area of the stream is a huge basin of quiet water. The general 

 effect of such conditions is discussed from the biological stand- 



* 1908 Report on the pollution of the Upper Hudson by industrial wastes — 

 Annual Rept. State Dept Health, N. Y. 28:407. 



f Phelps, E. B. 1909. The Pollution of Streams by Sulphite Pulp Waste. 

 U. S. Geol. Survey, Water Supply Paper, no. 226; 37 pp, 1 plate. 



