SALMON-HATCHING ESTABLISHMENT, m'CLOUD KIVER, CAL. 451 



them on the way down to Sacramento, which we reached at 2 o'clock p. 

 in., running- into the city and not being left for connections at the junc- 

 tion. 



" I found my time here (half an hour) very short in which to accomplish 

 the necessary details, and so had to hurry in order to soak the crates 

 with ice-water 5 to attend to transferring and icing them with 300 pounds 

 of ice, for which I had telegraphed; to go to Wells, Fargo & Co.'s 

 office to see the agent, Mr. Tracy, about expressing and rebilling the 

 crates, and to obtain from him a letter for admittance to express-cars, 

 which I never used ; to buy pail, dipper, and thermometer, besides attend- 

 ing to my personal baggage, tickets, &c. 



" The afternoon was hot ; and when we left Sacramento the tempera- 

 tures of the crates were varying from 60° to 63° ; but they were loaded 

 upon the coolest part of the car, and I iced them well during the after-, 

 noon and soaked them. Soon the temperatures were from 56° to 62°. 

 At evening, the messenger telegraphed for ice at Summit, Cal., which 

 we should reach in the night, and for a slight recompense he consented 

 to be without "a fire over night, though it was a cold night and he had 

 started one. Upon arriving at Summit, he found that no ice (strangely) 

 could be obtained there, and obtained a quantity at Boca, a station be- 

 yond. On the morning of Thursday, October 15, the temperatures were 

 from 50° to 56°. I turned the crates upside down, which was done 

 every day, so that the eggs should not settle down in one direction, 

 causing in this way too much pressure upon them. We moved them to 

 a rack in the car through which the water would run ; and, while the 

 travelers breakfasted at Humboldt, Nev., the engineer backed the train so 

 that we could bring a hydrant-hose into the car and give the crates a 

 thorough drenching. We also got about 400 pounds of ice from a trap- 

 hole in the station-platform. At Humboldt the messengers changed. 



"Having a good supply of ice, I commenced the experiment of taking 

 out the straw with which the boxes of eggs and moss were packed into 

 the crates, and substituting pieces of ice, pounded so as to fit its place, 

 in the intervening space between the boxes and the crates. The tem- 

 peratures at noon were 5-1° to 60°. At Carlin, Nev., Gil pounds of ice 

 were procured and cut up for the purpose stated above. Finding some 

 of the boxes had no holes in them, at Elko I got an auger and bored 

 some. From Wells onward, the rest of the day, at every station, I ob- 

 tained a pail of water, and, after cooling it with ice, poured it over the 

 crates in turn. As was also one of my motives in giving them so much 

 water at Humboldt and at Ogden the next morning, I wished to give 

 them all the water possible this day, for the water, especially beyond 

 Ogden through a long region of country, would be very doubtful in 

 quality, and I should hesitate about using it. 



" The temperatures that night when I left them were between 3S° and 

 50° ', and the next morning, Friday, October 16th, the} 7 were from 52° 

 to 54°. Early in the forenoon we changed cars at Ogden, Utah, and ^yhile 



