220 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 7, 1909. 
and State fish cultural work. It is not merely 
the class of anglers who are concerned—the 
people everywhere are becoming alive to the 
dangers of the situation. 
Boards of health throughout the country are 
considering the conditions, but little is accom¬ 
plished except where local conditions here and 
there become intolerable. Officers are usually 
unable to enforce existing laws and juries will 
not convict. The Herculean labor involved in 
setting things right will require the consent of 
the population and a liberal use of money and 
effort of the present generation, while the next 
generation will need to be vigilant in sustaining 
whatever protection may be secured. In Europe 
many of the problems connected with sewage 
disposal have been solved, and considerable help 
is thus available from the experience and prac¬ 
tical efforts of other countries. 
It is not the object of the present article to 
discuss the conditions which prevail in such 
rivers as our own Hudson; the large navigable 
rivers, flowing through densely populated sec¬ 
tions, will have to be dealt with from the view¬ 
point of public health. Anglers as a class are, 
however, interested in the upper waters of our 
streams, where they go for recreation, and the 
protection of such waters is quite possible. 
Many years of experience in the field as an 
officer of the United States Fisheries Bureau 
has led me to the belief that there is hope for 
the early salvation of our mountain streams 
where the population is not yet sufficient to 
cause damage by sewage. Here we have to deal 
chiefly with such matters as pollution by saw¬ 
dust and wood pulp refuse. 
Sawdust not only blackens the water, but 
drifts into eddies, where it becomes water¬ 
logged and settles, forming deposits which are 
very destructive to young fishes. It also settles 
into the gravel beds, and to some extent covers 
them, making unsafe for fish eggs many im¬ 
portant spawning grounds. 
Recent experiments by the National Fisheries 
Bureau have shown that sawdust promotes the 
growth of fungus on fish eggs and kills both 
eggs and young fishes. The finer kinds of saw¬ 
dust affect the larger fishes, getting into their 
gills, and dead fishes are found with consider¬ 
able quantities of sawdust in their stomachs. 
Many nuisances which we tolerate could be 
abated through active effort. Paper and pulp 
mills use lime, caustic soda, sulphuric acid, etc., 
all of which are deadly to fish life when drained 
into streams. 
Our whole national system of disposing of 
wastes is an immoral one; the town and the 
mill can be kept clean, but the condition of the 
stream itself has been utterly disregarded. 
In spite of the fact that there are laws in all 
States which prohibit the drainage of dangerous 
matter into public waters, there exist in fac¬ 
tories without numbers secret waste pipes which 
are opened during the night, the outpourings of 
which are so deadly to fish life that the practice 
of operating them can be only named as das¬ 
tardly. 
We have lived under these conditions so long 
that we are used to them. It is the old case of 
each for himself, with no thought of the health, 
wealth or happiness of those further down 
stream. In many beautiful streams, where fish¬ 
ing is still possible, fishes have become uneat¬ 
able through tainting of the water. This is true 
in a greater degree of shad and other sea fishes 
which succeeded in passing through the unspeak¬ 
able waters of New York Harbor. 
There are immense quantities of sawdust and 
other matter flowing in most of the streams of 
the Adirondacks. Washed down by freshets, 
these wastes are deposited in the beautiful lakes 
chiefly used for summer residence, rendering the 
water unfit for domestic and municipal use. 
It has taken a quarter of a century to get 
pure food laws through Congress, and it will 
take longer to clean up the streams of the coun¬ 
try, but it seems possible by concerted action of 
the anglers of America that our mountain 
streams can be cleared up, and in a very few 
years—soon enough for most of us to derive 
benefit from our labors. The results desired 
can only be secured by united effort. 
By separating the higher waters from the 
general pollution problem, the angler can count 
on considerable support from towns using such 
streams for drinking water. 
Important decisions have recently been made 
in New York respecting sawdust pollution, which 
affect more than 600 sawmills in the northern 
part of this State, but the work of improving 
conditions cannot be left with the courts and 
the State fishery officers. The latter are in some 
cases at least dominated by the very interests 
which cause the trouble. The citizen—and best 
of all for this particular purpose, the organized 
angler-citizen—must be the active prosecutor. 
Several angling associations have gotten good 
results in opposing stream pollution by orga¬ 
nized effort, and have done away with small 
nuisances in their own neighborhoods. Clean¬ 
ing up the mountain streams is undoubtedly the 
easiest part of the whole anti pollution task. 
If associations of anglers can get together for 
united action there is no reason why the work 
of preserving the angling waters cannot rapidly 
be made successful. It seems better for the 
present to take up the struggle from the point 
of view of the angler and to confine the efforts 
to the head waters. In this way the work will 
be easier for boards of health in their labors 
for the purification of waters further down 
Anglers should be able to secure help from 
commercial fishermen everywhere, since market 
fishing, even when excessive, is not as bad as 
wholesale stream pollution, and they should also 
be able to secure the support of all communities 
desiring clean water for town use. As organized 
bodies they could exert a most wholesome in¬ 
fluence on the work of fishery boards in all the 
States. 
The interests engaged in polluting our higher 
waters are not yet sufficiently powerful to claim 
everything for their side of the question. A 
reasonable amount of discussion ought to make 
it clear that the waters of our higher lakes and 
streams are vastly more valuable as sources of 
municipal water supply, for fisheries, and for 
summer homes than they possibly can be to a 
minority of small manufacturers. It is to be 
expected that all industries concerned will pro¬ 
test vigorously, but they are still greatly in the 
minority, and therefore the prospects are hope¬ 
ful. 
Sawdust can be kept out of streams, and at 
a very moderate expense. The waste of other 
mills can be kept on land, evaporated or other¬ 
wise treated. Water containing deleterious sub¬ 
stances of all kinds can be settled, cleared, fil¬ 
tered, evaporated or purified by chemical pro¬ 
cesses. It is needless at the present time to 
argue against this point, since engineers every¬ 
where understand methods of disposal suitable 
to various conditions. 
Ice companies are already protesting against 
sewage discharge adjacent to their places of 
operation. Ice from sewage-polluted streams is 
likely to cause typhoid fever, as the germs are 
not destroyed by freezing. 
It is not only possible to keep wastes out of 
the water, but it is possible to turn them into 
profit through valuable by-products. In many 
parts of Europe sewage is not only kept out of 
the waters, but valued as fertilizer. 
The struggle for the preservation of some *f 
the inland lakes of New York against pollution 
has been carried on for some time and good re¬ 
sults have been secured in several instances. 
The Merchants’ Association of New York City 
has made a good beginning in its work for the 
preservation of the Hudson, and it is unlikely 
that any additional sewage systems will be per¬ 
mitted to pollute the river. 
Every year enough fish fry goes into our 
streams and lakes to make the very best of 
angling within three or four years were the 
streams protected. 
Cannot angling associations at once begin the 
work of preserving our higher angling waters? 
Would it not be possible to form State organi¬ 
zations of anglers for this purpose? 
The following is an extract from a letter writ¬ 
ten by Hon. Geo. M. Bowers, United States Fish 
Commissioner, dated Washington, D. C., Feb. 
18 , 1909 : 
“The aqueous extract of various kinds of saw¬ 
dust, and of the bark of trees, is definitely poi¬ 
sonous to fishes, though the degree of toxicity 
varies with different kinds of wood. This has 
been shown experimentally by a number of in¬ 
vestigations, including those of this bureau. The 
real harm from sawdust comes about indirectly. 
Fish forsake their spawning grounds which have 
been covered and made unsuitable. Moreover, 
sawdust prevents the breeding of minute life 
on which the young of fishes live.” 
In a letter along similar lines George W. Field, 
chairman of the Massachusetts Commissioners 
on Fisheries and Game, says: “We have re¬ 
cently had a case of sawdust pollution carried 
to the Supreme Court of the United States, re¬ 
sulting in a decision upholding the constitution¬ 
ality of the law prohibiting the introduction of 
sawdust.” 
Netting in the Gulf of Mexico. 
New Orleans, La., July 26 . —Editor Forest 
and Stream: The commission proposes to 
recommend to the next Legislature a closed sea¬ 
son relative for all salt water fish in order to 
protect the various waters near New Orleans. 
It is shown that salt water fish are rapidly be¬ 
coming less and less each year and that some 
action will have to be taken by the lawmakers 
to prevent their entire extinction. It is claimed 
that the scores of Italians engaged in netting 
the fish in salt waters are responsible for the 
depopulation of the finny tribe. F. G. G. 
