Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/39

33 "Our inspection was corroborated by uncontested and overwhelming evidence."

"The rivers Aire and Calder and their tributaries are abused by passing into them hundreds of thousands of tons per annum of ashes, clay, and cinders from steam-boiler furnaces, ironworks, and domestic fires; by their being made the receptacle, to a vast extent, of broken pottery and worn-out utensils of metal, refuse from brickyards, &c., earth, stone, &c., from quarries and excavations, road scrapings, street sweepings, &c.; by spent dye-woods and other solids used in the treatment of worsteds and woollens; by hundreds of carcases of dogs, cats, pigs, &c., which are allowed to float on the surface of the streams or putrify [sic] on their banks; and by the flowing in, to the amount of very many millions of gallons per day, of water, poisoned, corrupted, and clogged by refuse from mines, chemical works, dyeing, scouring, and fulling worsted and woollen stuffs, skin-cleaning and tanning, slaughter-house garbage, and the sewage of towns and houses."

"Many streams where, by reason of their foulness, no form of life can at present be found, persons now living recollect abounding in fish."

One enormous penalty paid for this abuse of the rivers is flooding, consequent on the raising of the rivers' beds, and at page 12 the Commissioners exemplify this as follows: —

"That on the 15th of November, 1866, rain commenced and continued for several days, flooding the valleys of the Aire and Calder most destructively from the mountains to the sea. In several instances persons were washed away and drowned. It is not possible to form an estimate of the money value of the damage caused to the manufacturers, landowners, and others in the West Riding.

"The total loss was locally estimated at from half a million to a million sterling.

"The lesser sum would have been sufficient to put the rivers in a condition to render such destruction of life and property impossible."

After stating at page 13 that the amount of solids taken into the streams from sewers is in the aggregate enormous,