SALMON-HATCHING ESTABLISHMENT, M'CLOUD EIVER, CAL. 453 



die; the fungus, attaching itself to the next egg, spreads outward after 

 the manner of a warm, damp mold. This suggests two improvements : 

 First, that the eggs might be packed in smaller boxes, so that the cen- 

 ter eggs might not be so far away from the ice ; and secondly, that some 

 method might be devised for removing the decaying eggs during the 

 journey. However, if the crates are attended to in a thorough man- 

 ner, the present plan of packing does not much demand the proposed 

 improvements; and as to removing the decayed eggs, the loss is not of 

 a greater per cent, under the present system than would inevitably be 

 caused by the disturbance produced by any method of removing the 

 diseased eggs. 



"Friday night was a very cold night, and the messenger seemed to be 

 of that opinion the next morning, having walked back and forth, unable 

 to sleep during the night, in the icy car, which they are not allowed to 

 leave. Saturday morniug, October 17, the crates were in temperature 

 from 44 to 47°. They were turned over, and we moved them to the 

 coolest part of the car, out of the sunlight. At Laramie, Wyoming, I 

 procured a large quantity of ice, and watered the crates with ice-water, 

 and repacked them with ice, as well as laid large pieces on the top of 

 them. 



"After having once removed the straw, it kept me almost constantly 

 busy to keep the crates packed with ice. The intervening spaces between 

 the boxes and the crates were very narrow, not large enough to admit 

 pieces of ice larger than an apple, and the slats were too near together 

 to crowd ice between them. To pack any side of a crate, therefore, it 

 was necessary to tear off the slats of the crate each time, and nail them 

 up again ; which of course weakened the crates, and their structure 

 would not allow any of the slats to be left off. This method of packing 

 with ice consumes a large quantity of that article, and in the present 

 case it was slow work to break it up into pieces of requisite size. Fur- 

 thermore, the pieces were necessarily so small that they rapidly melted, 

 and the finishing one round of filling the crates with ice was but the sig- 

 nal to begin again with the first on another round. Inasmuch as this 

 method of packing with ice was a primitive experiment, and also not de- 

 cided upon in time to construct the crates otherwise, many of these in- 

 conveniences were present in this case which need not be considered as 

 necessarily accompanying the packing with ice. From the effects of my 

 trial, I consider that the packing the crates with ice is a very plausible 

 and practical method, and a decided improvement, if the crates are prop- 

 erly constructed, and if some one is constantly ready to renew the ice 

 when it becomes melted to even a slight degree, so that a warm draught 

 of air may not be allowed to strike the boxes at any point. The water 

 from the melting ice permeates the boxes containing the moss and eggs, 

 through the auger-holes, which is an additional item of advantage. 



"The temperatures Saturday noon were 41° to 47°. When the 

 express messengers changed at Cheyenne, Wyo., we conjectured that the 



