Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/42

 beyond the municipal boundaries to the Aire, which river is also polluted along both margins, carcases of dead animals float down until intercepted by shoals, where they remain to become putrid. As the population of Leeds has increased and manufactures have been extended, the local death rate has risen until the town is ranked by the Registrar-General amongst the most unhealthy of the kingdom. The death rate from 1857 to 1860 was 28 per 1,000, and from 1860 to 1864 was 29&middot;5 per 1,000."

The Commissioners next describe, at pages 40 to 43, the condition of the River Calder as affected by the various towns on it or its tributary streams, stating that all such towns as Todmorden, Halifax, Huddersfield, Dewsbury, and Wakefield, with an aggregate population of nearly 250,000, discharge their sewage and the filth from their various manufactures into the Calder, Halifax discharging the same by the Hebble, and Huddersfield by the Colne, the pollution of the river caused by Wakefield being much increased by a large weekly cattle and sheep market which is held there, and where as many as 1,000 horned cattle and 13,000 sheep have been sold in one day. "In dry weather," the Commissioners mention, "the banks of the river are covered with dark thick slime, and the entire volume of water is stained with dye-refuse; and from a river thus polluted, Wakefield," the Commissioners add (at page 46), "draws three-fourths of its water supply." And at the same page and page 47 they declare "that there is no excuse for the discharge of any sewage or ochrey matter into running streams and rivers, and that the pollutions from soap-suds, dyeing, and other processes may he prevented or greatly alleviated," the Commissioners concluding their detailed