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water is obtained from the large well near the river, but about one million gallons are obtained by filtering the river water through a mechanical filter, using alum as the coagulant. The matters intercepted by this filter, including the coagulant, are turned into the stream, as is all other refuse from the various manufacturing processes, except the dustings from the stock, which are said to be sold. to farmers.

A short distance below this mill is an unused mill privilege also owned by Hollingsworth & Vose. At this dam an abundant growth of the fungus Beggiatoa, which has already been mentioned, was found clinging to submerged objects. This was the farthest point up stream at which it was noticed in abundance.

Norwood. The river, after leaving Walpole, passes through the southerly portion of this town, and the natural drainage of the whole town goes into the river or its tributaries. The town is provided with a public water supply, but has no system of sewerage. There is, however, a ten-inch pipe sewer leading from a point near the centre of the town to the river, which conveys to it the water from several open ditches. One of these ditches brings to the sewer the drainage from the tannery owned by the Lyman Smith's Sons Company, and the others bring more or less sewage turned into them from buildings in the central part of the town.

A little more than half a mile below the lower dam of Hollingsworth & Vose a tributary, known as Hawes Brook, enters the river from the west. On this brook is located the tannery of Winslow Brothers, employing 175 hands, as against 125 in 1885. These numbers do not include the men employed at the finishing shops on the hill from which no refuse enters the stream.

Somewhat more than a million sheepskins and about one hundred thousand goat and calf skins are tanned and finished at this place annually. The sheepskins are about one-half foreign and one-half domestic, and by far the greater part of them come to the tannery either in lime or in pickle in about equal quantities, but some are received with the wool on, either green-salted or dry-cured. The pickled, or processed, skins when received at the tannery are ready for tanning without further preparation. The limed skins when received are prepared to the extent of pulling the wool only. The goatskins are nearly all foreign dry-cured skins and the calfskins

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are mostly domestic green-salted. The total number of skins which are unhaired or from which the wool is pulled amounts to about a quarter of a million annually.

In the manufacturing processes the materials used yearly are approximately as follows:

The refuse from the manufacturing processes is discharged into a series of shallow settling basins formed by dikes, in which the greater part of the solid matter is intercepted. The effluent from the basins flows into the brook, which is very badly polluted at all points below, and has at times a very offensive odor.

The paper mill of Isaac Ellis, which was located upon the brook above the tannery in 1885, was burned in July, 1888, and has not been rebuilt.

The next establishment on the main river below Hawes Brook is the printing-ink works of George H. Morrill & Co. Twenty-one hands are now employed at this place, an increase of six since 1885. It is said that no manufacturing waste enters the stream at this place except a small amount of lamp black which, having escaped into the air and settled in different places around the works, is washed into the stream by rains. The bed and banks of the stream below the works, however, are coated with a tarry matter which is not found above them, and which probably comes from the portion of the works where gas is manufactured, to be subsequently used in making the lamp black. The operatives use a privy which discharges into the stream. Near the Norwood Station on the New York & New England Railroad is located the tannery of Lyman Smith's Sons Company, employing an average of 175 hands throughout the year. In the

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year ending July 1, 1891, 1,110,180 sheepskins were tanned at this place, of which rather more than one-half were pickled or processed skins. The company declined to furnish a list of the materials used in the manufacturing processes, but the methods are about the same as at the tannery of Winslow Brothers, except that hemlock bark is used instead of the extract, and only a very small amount of wool pulling is done. The drainage from the works flows into settling basins in which some of the solid matters are retained and afterwards cleaned out and carted away. From these basins the drainage overflows into a ditch and passes through the sewer already mentioned to the river, a little more than half a mile below the ink works. At the point where the drainage from the tannery enters the river there was a deposit of black matter, and a decidedly offensive odor was noticed in this vicinity.

The only other works of importance in Norwood are the New York & New England Railroad car shops. Dry privies are used at this place so that there is no noticeable pollution of the streams.

As already mentioned, the most polluted portion of the whole river is near the head of the Fowl Meadows, after the river has received the manufacturing drainage from all of the establishments in Walpole and Norwood. As the water first enters the meadows and the current becomes sluggish its condition is apparently a little worse than at any other point. In appearance it resembled a huge sink drain, and its odor was very offensive at all times. Passing through this portion of the stream in a boat, a mass of floating matter about three inches in thickness, similar to that seen in the Hollingsworth & Vose millpond, was encountered, which covered the surface of the river from bank to bank for a distance of more than one hundred feet. Bubbles frequently arose from the bottom of this portion of the stream, bringing with them at times small masses of the muddy deposit.

Sharon. This town is provided with a public water supply, but has no sewerage system. There are no sewers or factories in the town which contribute any considerable amount of polluting matter to the streams.

Stoughton - This town is provided with a limited public water supply, but has no sewerage system. The streams in the town are small, and the amount of polluting matter turned into them is not large, and, as a whole, has not changed much since 1885.

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Since then the small woollen mill of Consider Southworth, on Muddy Brook in West Stoughton, has been burned, and the small cotton-twine manufactory of A. Southworth, farther down the same stream, has been vacated.

French & Ward's woollen mill, which is also located on Muddy Brook, now employs from 175 to 200 hands, an increase of from 25 to 50 since 1885. From 300 to 400 pounds of wool, which shrinks from 25 to 40 per cent., are scoured here daily. All refuse from manufacturing goes directly into the stream.

Canton. Nearly all of this town lies within the Neponset River basin. There is a public water supply, but no public sewerage system.

Since 1885 the number of sources of pollution has been reduced by the destruction by fire of the woollen yarn mill at Springdale and by the removal of the Canton Paint and Oil Company.

At two establishments the business has increased. The Eureka Silk Manufacturing Company, which has three mills just above the central portion of the village, employs 300 hands, who use privies emptying into the stream. This is double the number employed in 1885. All kinds of silk threads are made and dyed here, the product amounting to about 150,000 pounds per year. Logwood, iron and aniline colors are used in dyeing, and a large amount of soap is used for washing. All refuse from the manufacturing operations goes into the stream.

The Canton Manufacturing Company, located in the lower portion of the town and engaged in bleaching fine cotton goods, has now 50 employees, as against 22 in 1885. The chemicals used in bleaching are sulphuric acid, bleaching powder and soda-ash. About 82,000 pounds of acid and fifty casks each of bleaching powder and soda-ash are used per year. About five-eighths of a barrel of alum per day is used in the mechanical filter through which about one million gallons of water are filtered daily. All wastes, both from manufacturing processes and from the privies, go into the stream.

The other large factories upon the stream in this town are the works of the Kinsley Iron and Machine Company and the Reverc Copper Company. At these establishments the conditions are about the same as in 1885, except that there has been a reduction of about 20 per cent. in the force employed at both places.

The other important source of pollution in the town is the woollen

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mill of Draper Brothers at Canton Corners, where from 85 to 90 men are usually employed, but sometimes as many as 120. From 150,000 to 200,000 pounds of wool are scoured here yearly. The situation of this mill is peculiar in that it is not located upon a stream but derives its water supply from a well. All refuse from wool scouring and from dyeing flows on to swampy land near by, from which a stream starts which consists almost wholly of drainage from this mill. Farther down the valley the drainage is diluted somewhat as the size of the stream is increased by surface and subterranean tributaries, but in all places down to the meadows the stream is extremely foul, and has a very offensive odor.

Dedham, Hyde Park, Milton and Dorchester. - All of these places are below the Fowl Meadows, and, as the conditions as regards the pollution of the river do not vary radically from those which existed in 1885, no detailed description of the sources of pollution will be given.

The principal sources of manufacturing pollution are the woolscouring and paper mills. The amount of wool scouring in 1891 was about the same as in 1885; the quantity scoured at the Merchants' woollen mill in East Dedham being enough smaller at the latter date to offset the increase at the mills of Robert Bleakie & Co. and John Scott in Hyde Park.

In 1885 there were three paper mills on the main river, below Mother Brook, all owned by Tileston & Hollingsworth. The second of these mills was burned and has not been rebuilt, but the number of operatives employed and the yearly product of paper at the upper mill have been increased more than enough to make up for this lo-s.

Taking all of the mills and factories on the streams in these towns together there has been an increase of 16 per cent. in the number of operatives.

Above Mother Brook, in Hyde Park, the pollution of the river is noticeable to the eye, but the water does not have an offensive odor. In Mother Brook and at points further down the main river the water looks more polluted and smells badly at times. The lower part of the river receives considerable sewage matter both from privies and from sewers and drains. The water in the river above Mother Brook is satisfactory, for use in boilers, but further down the stream causes more or less foaming in them.