6-7 EDWARD VII. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 22a A. 1907 



XII 



SAWDUST AND FISH LIFE. 



FINAL REPORT BY PROFESSOR A. P. KNIGHT, QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, 



KINGSTON, ONT. 



The following concludes my report upon the effects of sawdnst on fish life. The 

 work was begun at the Dominion biological station, St. Andrews, in 1900, continued 

 at the biological laboratory of Queen's University during the summers of 1901 aitd 

 1902, and concluded during the summer of 1904, by a series of observations which were 

 made in tidal waters at different points along the coasts of Nova Scotia and New 

 Brunswick. 



LITERATURE. 



Since my last report, completed three years ago, no new literature has been pub- 

 lished on the subject in Canada, excepting in the annual reports of the Ontario Fish 

 Commissioner for 19Q2 and for 1903. In his report for the former year the Ontario 

 Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries says: — 



^ Ample opportunity of determining that sawdust is injurious to fish life has been 

 given to the department while engaged in transplanting its bass, where the ice used 

 haa not been thoroughly rinsed. On an examination of the bass which had died in 

 transmission, particles of sawdust were found between the gills, which it may be 

 assumed caused the death of many of the fish. But the danger to and effects upon fish 

 life from this pollution do not. alone arise from this cause, but they are also due to 

 the poisonious gases which are emitted from the decaying deposits ; and these gases are 

 not only most deadly to fish life, but they are a great menace to human health as well. 

 It may be assumed that for this reason, in waters in the vicinity of old mill sites no 

 fish are usually to be found.' 



There are two points in this extract which require some elucidation. The first is 

 the assumption that in transplanting bass, the fish that died on the journey were killed 

 by sawdust. Before admitting this, ;one would need to know whether all the fish at the 

 beginning of the journey were in vigorous health and strength. Can Mr. Bastedo 

 assure us that the fish which died were not injured when they were being caught? Can 

 he assure us that the water in which they were transported was thoroughly aerated on 

 the journey? If not, the weaker fish and the injured fish would die from suffocation, 

 not from the efi'ects of a few grains of sawdust adhering to the ice. Mr. Bastedio's. 

 transportation tank may have been a veritable ' Black hole of Calcutta ' for his poor 

 bass ! 



The other point — that about poisonous gases — is not new to any one who possesses 

 the slightest acquaintance with the literature of sawdust effects upon fish life. 



Charles Hallock, writing in Forest and Stream, December 29, 1888, says: — 'The 

 old foundation walls and dams remain, and untold tons of tan bark and. sawdust still 

 cover the beds of the abandoned mill ponds, knee deep, all of it in a perfect state of 



preservation nevertheless, the brook continues fairly stocked with small 



trout, despite the supplementary fact that it has been unmercifully fished ever since 



22a— 11 111 



