SANITARY SURVEY OF DRAINAGE BASIN OF POTOMAC RIVER. 237 
the factory at Luke; a change of intake is being made so as to 
make it a gravity system. 
Typhoid fever occurs annually in both tovms. The unsatisfactory 
records obtainable for Piedmont would indicate the occurrence of 
about ten cases annually there. In Westernport there was a record 
of one death from this disease in 1903, one in 1904, one in 1905, and 
one in March, 1906. There was said to be a little more of this disease 
in both towns this year than in 1905. 
Georges Creek joins the North Branch at Westernport. Its waters 
are badly polluted by drainage from mines. At its head is the town 
of Frostburg, which is without a sewerage system, so that the pollution 
of the creek with sewage is indirect. 
About midway between Frostburg and Westernport is the mining 
town of Lonaconing, having a population of 2,181. It has a public 
water suppl}^ derived from two mountain streams, but it has no public 
sewerage system, though there are some sewers which serve a few 
houses, stores, and hotels; these sewers empty into Georges Creek, as 
do many privies which directly overhang the stream. 
Some cases of typhoid occur annually. In 1904 three deaths from 
the disease are recorded, implying an occurrence of about 30 cases of 
the disease. In 1905 seven deaths were recorded, whereas only one 
death from this disease has been recorded up to September 15, 1906. 
Five miles below Westernport is the city of Keyser. This is an 
enterprising tovm having a population of about 2,684. It derives its 
importance largely from the fact that it is a division point on the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which has large shops here. There is 
also a large woolen mill located at this point. The river here is pol- 
luted by the waste fromi. the mill and the sewage of its emplo^^ees, 
which directly enter the stream. New Creek, which flows through 
Keyser and joins the North Branch at this point, receives the sewage 
of the tovm. The tovm is prett}^ well sewered, although- numerous 
privies are still in use, which probably are responsible for much of the 
typhoid prevailing here every year; for, although there is a public 
water supply derived from a near by mountain spring, a considerable 
number of wells are still in use. 
Keyser has a rather unenviable reputation for typhoid. Cases 
occur every year. In 1904 it had ten deaths from this cause.® There 
has been a good deal of typhoid this year, more than in 1905, but no 
definite data are available. 
From Keyser the North Branch flows on for 26 miles to Cumberland, 
where it is joined from the north by Wills Creek. 
Wills Creek rises on the western slope of Savage Mountain, Som- 
erset County, Pa., and runs northwest to Mance, where it turns and 
a Public Health Reports, July 20, 1906, p. 843. 
