258 



Appendices to TJiirty-tliird Annual Report 



The quantity of effluent passing into the settling pond appears to be 

 about 15,000 gallons in a ten hours working day. In the mills there is 

 a sulphui'ic acid tank which contains roughly about 200 to 250 gallons 

 of a fluid found to be 8 per cent. Twaddell, wliich represents 6 per cent, 

 of pure acid. This tank is run off, I am informed, every three weeks. 



A suggestion has now been made to allow the contents of the settling 

 pond to run off into the mill lade gradually during each day, and to allow 

 the contents of the sulphuric acid tank to run out only during Saturday and 

 Sunday, when water is not drawn from the lade, and the lade is running 

 full. This seems to take no account of the provision in Byelaw G (2) of 

 the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1868, which requires that when 

 water is not necessary for uses of the mill, the -lade should be closed and 

 the water sent down the dam dyke. In any case, I consider that the 

 contents of this sulphuric acid tank should bo kept out of the river alto- 

 gether. 



I learn that certain of the proprietors raised an action in the Sheriff 

 Court in Ayr to have the pollution stopped, and that eventually the 

 defenders put forward a minute undertaking to carrv out a proposal by 

 Mr. W. A. Tait, C.E., Edinburgh, to whom the Sheriff had remitted the 

 consideration of the difficulty, without further litigation. 



Mr. T (it's ])roposal I he CkM'k of the Distric t Fishery Board informs me, 

 is, shortly, to make two ponds with a floating valve so that the effluent 

 would be free to run out at all times, while one or other pond was being 

 cleaned out. The effluent so let out would be carried in pipes to the 

 foot of the lade, a distance of 200 to 300 yards, and taken out into the 

 middle of the river, where it would be discharged by means of a revolving 

 sprinkler. 



There is some fear that this suggestion may have practical difficulties 

 connected with it. The gradient down the lade is slight, and it is feared 

 that a soapy fluid such as this referred to will choke up the pipe and the 

 sprinkler. The proposal seems to me to be of the nature of an improve- 

 ment upon the existing method, if the practical difficulties suggested are 

 obviated, but treatment by the method of settling, or attempted settling, 

 of a fluid of this kind, seems to me to be unwise if any better plan can be 

 found. Mr. Charles Young, W.S., who has acted throughout for the 

 proprieto]'s in this matter, tells me that by another method pressure can 

 be a])plied to the soapy fluid so as to recover the greasy solids. 



Mr. Harling Turner, the Commissioner to the Duke of Portland, to 

 whom the mills belong, is also considering this alternative method. 



LossiE. 



I am informed that the District Fishery Board has been given up. The 

 little river has in the past suffered seriously from pollution and from the 

 existence of five mill dams, three of which are serious. The pollution 

 has been greatly reduced by the Elgin purification works. The dykes, 

 I fear, remain unaltered. They were reported upon in detail in the 21st 

 Annual Report, Part 11. p. 16. 



GiRVAN. 



A recurrence of pollution seems to have had injurious effects in this 

 river. It will be recollected that some years ago the fish in the river 

 were completely destroyed by the highly impregnated water pumped from 

 a coal pit long disused. That difficulty having been gradually overcome 

 by the working out of the pollution, a new danger has appeared from the 

 systematic manner in which sheep are now required to be dipped, and the 



