742 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



sponges and the moisture in the straw and around the lobster. It was slow work, and the lobsters 

 were too much exposed during the operations. Often, after the boxes were piled up again, pailfuls 

 of salt-water were poured, over the whole. During the first two or three days only a few were 

 found dead when they were repacked." After the fourth or fifth day the mortality increased and 

 from one-third to one-half the number were often found dead at each time of repacking. On the 

 fifth day the straw was removed from the boxes, and the lobsters were packed entirely with 

 sponges. Numerous devices were improvised to diminish the death rate, but all were unavailing. 

 Two lobsters were left at Ogden, Utah, to be deposited in Salt Lake, and on leaving there but 

 eight live lobsters remained, of these only four reached San Francisco, and they were put into the 

 sea at Oakland wharf, June 12, nine days after they had been taken from the Atlantic Ocean.* 



Third attempt. The final and successful trip was made in June, 1879, the shipment con- 

 sisting of lobsters, striped bass, black bass, and eels. They were carried in large salt-water tanks. 

 The following account is extracted from a report by Mr. Livingston Stone : 



" The first difficulty to be encountered [in transporting marine animals], viz, the tendency of 

 the ocean water to become foul in the tanks en route, was overcome, as above mentioned, by letting 

 the water stand long enough to clear itself of animal life. 



" The second difficulty of keeping the water cold in the tanks without introducing ice into it, 

 I resolved to meet by using a variety of coolers formed by the mixture of melting ice and salt. I 

 tried three methods of using the freezing mixtures : (1) Putting the ice and salt in large stone 

 jugs in the tanks ; (2) The regular ice-cream-freezer plan of putting the freezing mixture in a 

 vessel surrounding another vessel containing the water to be cooled ; (3) Filling a large earthen 

 drain tile with the freezing mixture and keeping it in a reserve tank of water from which the water,, 

 when cool enough, could be exchanged with the warmer water in the lobster tanks. 



"All three varieties worked very well, and were employed for nearly the whole trip, the ice- 

 cream-freezer method, however, being found to work the best in actual practice. 



"After completing my preparatory arrangements for the care of the lobsters in transit, I 

 procured some lobsters of Messrs. Johnson [of Boston], and in order to test the efficacy of my 

 plans, I subjected the lobsters for a fortnight, as nearly as practicable, to the very conditions 

 which they would encounter on the journey, and for this purpose 1 kept men watching them and 

 dipping the water in the tanks every fifteen minutes, night and day, for fifteen days. The result 

 was very encouraging, and gave strong hopes that the lobsters would reach the Pacific Ocean alive. 



"The start from Albany was propitious and encouraging. We had with us three tanks of 

 lobsters, three tanks of striped bass, two tanks of black bass, and two tanks of eels. The lobster 

 tanks contained 22 female lobsters with over a million eggs nearly ready to hatch out. * * * 

 The tanks were very heavy and difficult to lift, weighing about 300 pounds apiece. 



" Besides the tanks containing fish, there were two large freezing tanks, in which were kept 

 the reserve of ocean water and a constantly-renewed freezing mixture to maintain the reserve at 

 as low a temperature as possible. These weighed nearly 300 pounds apiece when full. We also 

 had two 5-gallon stone jugs containing the freezing mixture, and a large supply of ice and salt, 

 an assortment of dippers, hatchets, thermometers, and other small articles indispensable to a 

 journey of this kind. 



"The main points about the care of the fish were : (1) to keep the temperature of the tanks just 

 right all the time; (2) to keep the water constantly aerated ; (3) at every change of cars to make 

 the transfer from one train to another without injury to the fish and in season to take the connect- 

 ing train. * * * I aimed to keep the lobsters at a temperature of between 46 and 55. 



* M. L. Perrin, in Report United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, Part III, 1876, p. 260. 



