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due to the evaporation of the rain in the act of
falling. In consequence of this absence of wet,
the river was charged during the summer and
autumn with a large proportion of saline matter.
As early as the end of May it contained as much as
124 grains of solid matter per gallon, the average
proportion in a normal state of the river being but
24 grains; and by the end of August the quantity
of impurity had risen to 386 grains per gallon;
nearly the whole of this was saline matter from the
ocean, the flow of the stream having being upwards
instead of downwards; but with this saline matter
there was also brought up a large proportion of
sewage, the quantity of organic matter (chiefly of
sewage) being 43 grains per gallon. It was fortunate
that the weather was unusually cold during
the whole of that time, and therefore the river did
not become offensive from putrefactive decomposition,
but if the temperature of the water had risen
to 68 or 69 degrees, as it did in the summers
of 1858 and 1859, the effects of it would no
doubt have been seriously unpleasant. That which
keeps down the offensiveness of the river during
the summer time is either a low temperature or a
copious rain-fall; and it is manifest, from the experience
which has been gained from the regular
examination of the water of the river during the
c