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SAWDUST AND FISH LIFE 117 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 22a 



According to the Hydrographic Survey of the State of Maine (Walter Wells, 

 superintendent, 1869), the total drainage area of the St. John river is 26,000 square 

 miles, of which 7,400 lie in the State of Maine. The annual discharge from the area 

 in Maine is 284,000,000 cubic feet. Using this as a basis, it follows that the annual 

 discharge from the whole area will amount to about 1,000,000,000,000 cubic feet, or 

 62,000,000,000,000 pounds. 



On the assumption that the saw mills run for about two-thirds of the year, say 

 200 days, it will follow that 407,000,000 pounds of sawdust mingle with about (40 

 trillion) 40,000,000,000,000 pounds of water. Expressing this in the form of percen- 

 tage 5^trength of sawdust solution, we get '001 as the result. 



Comparing this again with my laboratory experiments, in which a solution of '12 

 per oent strength killed a minnow in 29 minutes, and another solution in which a 

 strength of '16 per cent killed in 90 minutes, we see that even if all the mill refuse 

 were discharged into the St. John the pollution would not be great enough to kill fish. 



Moreover, we must make two allowances in the case of the St. John river. In the 

 first place, much of the lumber is spruce, and according to my laboratory experiments 

 of 1902, spruce sawdust was the least poisonous of all. In the second place, it must be 

 remembered that St. John is the scene of the great reversible falls. During two periods 

 of every 24 hours the St. John river falls into St. John harbour. During two other 

 periods of the day the salt water of the Bay of Fundy pours into the mouth of the 

 St. John river, the tide effects being felt as far up the river as Fredericton. This im- 

 mense body of salt water, therefore, mingling with the fresh water of the river,, lessens 

 the strength of the sawdust pollution at the mouth and renders it still less likely to do 

 harm. 



BAY OF FUNDY. 



One would suppose it quite as likely to hear that the Atlantic was polluted with 

 sawdust as to hear that the Bay of Fundy was. And yet that is precisely what could 

 be heard among the fishermen along the Bay of Fundy in 1877 and 1879. 



In 1889, the late W. H. Rogers, inspector of fisheries, published what was known 

 as The Suppressed Sawdust Report. Writing in referenoe to pollution of the Bay of 

 Fundy, he says (page 2 of his pamphlet) : — 



* It has been stated that the falling off in the catch of shad in the Bay of Fundy 

 was caused by sawdust; that fish swallowed it, and died in large numbers in conse- 

 quence. The fact that ideas of this kind gained some credence led me to inquire more 

 carefully into the matter, but not for my own satisfaction, because no such doctrine 

 C' uld be a-. (?epted by any one with the most limited knowledge of the habits o'f fish, or 

 the natrirnl laws a,overning them. The same idea had been exploded several times before 

 in the case of other branches of the fisheries, notably the Digby herring fishery. My 

 views and reports on this fishery will be found on file in the year 1879, and it will be 

 seen that the state of that fishery since has fully sustained the position I maintained 

 at that time. The average annual catch from 1870 to 1879, ten years, was 22,300 boxes, 

 and from 1880 to 1887, eight years, 55,200 boxes. During the years 1877 and 1879, 

 when the annual catch fell to about 5,000 boxes, sawdust was pointed to as the cause, 

 and numerously signed petitions were sent to the government pressing for the enforce- 

 ment of the law. My view was stated to be that the decrease was merely owing to a 

 periodical fluctuation, with which sawdust had nothing to do, and that the fish would 

 return in as great abundance as ever. And I appeal with full confidence to the facts, 

 as stated,' substantiating my view after an experience of nine years has thrown its 

 light upon the subject. In 1887 the catch of Digby herring amounted to 74,135 boxes ; 

 the catch for 1888 is only 12,200. We may, therefore, expect again that large numbers 

 of petitions will be sent to the government asking the enforcement of the sawdust 

 law, so as to save the Digby herring fishery from destruction.' 



