Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/30

 disease in many districts, and imperilling the general health of the inhabitants of the country."

Adverting, page 28, to the cases of the Rhiedol, Ystwith, and Dovey, and observing that "no change for the better had been made in the condition of these rivers," polluted enormously by lead mines (the two first "completely poisoned,") Mr. Ffenncll remarks, with reference to the Dovey, so seriously injured by the Dylifa lead mine, and the remark equally applies, he says, to copper mines, that—

"The managers of the Devon Great Consols mine have shewn that the largest and richest mine in the kingdom can be worked without damage to the Fisheries, and the system pursued at that mine should be universally carried out."

At pages 29 and 30 Mr. Ffennell notices some naptha and oil works as very destructive to the fish, the former near Gloucester, which were said to have "poisoned the salmon last summer in great numbers, and the latter below Chester, which so polluted the Dee, that it was said its water "could not be used for washing," it being added, that scores upon scores of salmon had been found dead near the works, and that the water appeared at times blackened for miles. At Page 27 of Report, Mr. Eden, the other Inspector, says:—"It cannot be too often shown that in most instances the mischief occasioned by the pollution of rivers is capable of easy remedy, and in all of great palliation;" adding, at

Page 40 of Report:—"On the subject of pollution, I have not suggested any amendment (Mr. refers to certain amendments suggested by him in the English Salmon Fisheries Act of 1861). It is a question of vital importance, not only to the Fisheries, but to the health and enjoyment of the whole population of the country, and appears to me to require graver consideration and more radical treatment than it can receive by the insertion and discussion of a clause in a Fishery Bill."