SAWDUST AND FISH LIFE 



119 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 22a 



•Comparing this with fatal doses of sawdust poison as determined in my laboratory 

 experiments already alluded to, it can easily he seen that no harm can be done to fish 

 fry or fish eggs by the water at the mouth of the Ste. Croix river. 



Moreover, another important factor must be taken into account. Tidal water 

 rises about 3 feet at the ends of the lowest mills on the Ste. Croix. The sawdust is dis- 

 charged, therefore, not into 123,000,000 cubic feet of river water daily, but into this 

 amount of fresh water plus the tidal water of Passamaquoddy bay. This tidal water 

 is of immmense volume. When the tide is out the river averages 50 yards in width and 

 four feet in depth for 5 miles below the mills. When the tide is in, this increases to 

 150 yards in width and 20 feet in depth. In other words, the volume of water into 

 which the sawdust is discharged becomes -fifteen times larger, and the strength of the 

 solution becomes fifteen times less. Consequently, in tidal waters sawdust pollution is 

 diminished and the poisonous effects, if any, are still further reduced below what they 

 would be in a river that did not discharge into the sea. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



1. I submit the same general conclusion as I did in my report for 1902. No 

 stream can be pronounced oif-hand as poisoned by sawdust. Each stream must be 

 studied by itself and the varying conditions must be thoroughly understood before a 

 judgment can be pronounced. The chief things to be considered are (1) the quantity 

 of sawdust and (2) the volume of water into which the sawdust is discharged. Subor- 

 dinate conditions are the rapidity or sluggishness of the stream, the amount of sun- 

 light or shade and the character of the water, whether from agricultural lands or from 

 primitive forests. 



2. I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that no stream or river which I 

 have yet studied in Ontario, New Brunswick, or Nova Scotia, is sufficiently pohuted 

 with sawdust to destroy half grown or full grown fish. 



3. The varying strengths of sawdust solutions that will kill different kinds of fish 

 eggs have not yet been determined. Perch eggs were hatched out in the university 

 laboratory in a solution of '03 per cent strength. 



4. In place of sawdust being the potent factor in the destruction of fish life, it 

 would seem likely that mill dams are the real cause. Mill dams without proper fish- 

 ways prevent the ascent of anadromous fish to their natural spawning grounds, and 

 thus cut off all chance of natural propagation. As suggested in a recent report by Pro- 

 fessor Prince, the question of the adequacy of fishways is a vital one to Canadian 

 fisheries. 



5. It would seem more reasonable to amend the Act against passing sawdust into 

 streams, and make it approximate to that in force in the State of Massachusetts. In 

 this state, it is provided that whenever the Pish and Game Commissioners should de- 

 cide ' that the fish in any brook or stream are of suficient value to warrant the prohi- 

 bition or regulation of the discharge of sawdust from sawmills, and that the discharge 

 thereof from any particular sawmill materially injures such fish, they could restrict 

 the pollution by an official order.' 



This would compel a personal inspection of a stream before an order could be 

 issued to stop its pollution by sawdust. In this way both the interests of millowners 

 and of the general public would be carefully weighed before the law would be placed 

 in execution. 



