Welsh Journals

some of the important works hinted at in the text, but this is in general a pleasantly readable and instructive introduction to an absorbing field of natural history. P.H.J. The Wreck of the Torrey Canyon, by CRISPIN GILL, FRANK BOOKER & TONY SOPER. David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1967, 128 pages. 21s. Written and published within a few months after the tanker struck the Seven Stones Reef, Cornwall, this is a factual record of the disaster and its aftermath. There were no plans to deal with such an emergency. The attempts to sink the oil by spraying with detergents were completely ineffective much of the detergent remaining floating near the surface and proved to be so highly toxic to marine life, even at less than 25 parts per million, that the Ministry of Fisheries had to warn fishermen against its use. It merely modified the consistency of the oil and made it more difficult to deal with. This book should be read in conjunction with the illuminating special supplement Conservation and the Torrey Canyon published in July 1967 by the Devon Trust for Nature Conservation, 72 pages, nearly half of these devoted to a world review of detergent pollution by Clyde Manwell & C. M. Ann Baker, which no thinking conservationist can afford not to read. "In Milford Haven, which since 1960 has become our most important oil port, small quantities of oil are spilt almost every week and three major accidents have occurred." After the first (1960) spill in Milford Haven, "Dr. George made a rough assessment that the oil had killed about 30 per cent of shore life whilst spraying with emulsifier killed over 90 per cent." Probably 100,000 sea-birds were killed by this single disaster of the Torrey Canyon the book gives ringing details of shags, guillemots and razorbills oiled-ringed at Skomer, Skokholm, Scilly, Bardsey and Rathlin Islands. T.K. (Reports from Skomer, Skokholm and Ramsey Island in 1967 show a continuing decrease in the number of the surface swimming auks-puffins, guillemots and razorbills-breeding there a decline which began however over twenty years ago. A major oil spillage occurred in Milford Haven as long ago as September 1936 when the vessel Bandar Shahpur was beached in distress at Dale. To lighten her, crude oil was pumped overboard (not into lighters, as it obviously should have been). The whole shore of Milford Haven was blackened from Dale to Pembroke (I record returning to Skokholm, 30th September 1936 through "sheets of black oil"). Luckily the sea-birds had left their breeding grounds. This pollution gradually cleared up over the next year under natural agencies of weather, tide and marine organisms attacking the weathered oil granules. No detergents were used. We hope to return to this oil problem in a future issue. Meanwhile it is satisfactory to learn that the Orielton Field Centre, through its Warden, E. B. Cowell, is studying oil pollution within Milford Haven -see under News from all quarters, below.-R.M.L.) Wayside and Woodland Fungi, by W. P. K. FINDLAY. F. Warne & Co. Ltd., London, 202 pages, 1967. 65s. This is a book to be treasured not only by the fungus forayist but also by artists, amateur naturalists, and addicts of the fungi