68 New York State 



forms than one found lower down in the stream. But these 

 conditions formed in fact the last link of a chain that could be 

 traced up stream without a break to the pool at the foot of the 

 Spier Falls dam. The difference from moment to moment as we 

 proceeded along the bank was too small to be measured in territory 

 that was contiguous, but these differences grew by imperceptible 

 gradations until from the conditions just described at the one ex- 

 treme, one reached the other extreme, which was conspicuously 

 noticeable in the water below the dam at Spier Falls. Whereas the 

 evidences of pollution were so extremely scanty as to be almost un- 

 noticeable at the lower end of the territory, they spread over the 

 entire stream at the upper end and were, moreover, conspicuous in 

 some portions of it. In the stretch of the river just below the dam 

 one could find a considerable growth of the organisms that have al- 

 ready been noted as characteristic of waters polluted with sulphite 

 wastes. The entire stream was not affected in this way and one 

 could see areas that were only slightly involved or apparently 

 entirely free from such growth. Along the bank, however, where 

 we could observe most perfectly, it was possible to find these organ- 

 isms at almost every point. There was also a noticeable lack of the 

 normal pure water organisms. One can readily represent to himself 

 the changes which were taking place in the stretch of the river below 

 this, where its waters were exposed to the air and sunlight and 

 undergoing rapid purification. The process was aided by the char- 

 acter of the bottom, which brought about a mixing of surface and 

 deeper waters and of the waters from different parts of the stream. 

 It was, of course, greatly aided by the ripples, in which the water 

 added conspicuously to its oxygen content, and the result was that by 

 the time the stretch had been covered, pretty nearly all of the effects 

 of pollution had disappeared. 



Passing around the dam, I studied the deep water above, in so far 

 as it could be observed from the shore. In color, turbidity, presence 

 of floating flocculent matter, in the growth of pollution organisms 

 in shallow places, and in absence of the organisms which charac- 

 terize pure water it had all the appearances of a stream polluted 

 by sulphite waste liquids, and recalled precisely the conditions which 

 had been observed in the vicinity of Palmer Falls on the previous 

 trip. There certainly were few, if any, pure water organisms liv- 

 ing in it, and we did not see any evidence of fish whatever. From 

 men living and working along the stream I learned that there were 

 no fish above the dam, as, according to the testimony given, they 



