REPORT ON THE TRANSIT OF STOCK. 469 



The animals are first arranged in two rows, with their heads 

 to the sides of the vessel, and are packed as close as they can 

 •stand. When these are rilled up, a third row is placed in the 

 -space between them by means of temporary fittings, leaving only 

 narrow passages between the rows. The number of beasts that 

 may be packed into a hold is limited more by the size of them 

 than any other consideration, the practice invariably followed 

 being, to fill up every inch of space possible." 



Cattle for deck passage are treated similarly. They are usually 

 arranged around the sides of the ship, with their heads secured 

 to the bulwarks, and as close together as they can stand. _ These 

 are also further secured by having broad planks fixed in tem- 

 porary standards run along behind their buttocks, while a 

 similar plank is fixed as a division to every tenth beast or 

 so. The effect of this arrangement, when the animals are not 

 actually jammed between the planks, as they sometimes are, is 

 very good, especially during rough weather, steadying and sup- 

 porting the animals during the rolling of the vessel. Systematic 

 arrangements for supplying the animals with food and water on 

 the voyage there are none. Shippers do occasionally send hay 

 for their beasts ; but if they do not, the steamer provides none ; 

 and even when the owner does, the position and method of 

 securing the beasts in the vessel almost prevents the possibility 

 of their either eating or drinking. What the cattleman does, 

 when he has received hay for any particular lot of cattle, is 

 simply to throw a little of it along the heads of these animals, 

 *ind they certainly may get a little, but the bulk of it is dragged 

 down amongst their feet in their attempts to reach it ; and once 

 down, it is irrecoverable. And so with water. Look at a row 

 of twenty or thirty cattle standing as close together as they can 

 be put, with their heads tied hard and fast to the side of the ship, 

 and say how water is to be got within reach of their mouths, unless 

 with greater labour than can be undertaken on ordinary voyages. 

 When delay in transit occurs, and necessity compels the supply 

 of food and water, the vessel is usually taken into a port, sup- 

 plies got, and given to the animals ; but these are special cases, 

 and scarcely apply to general traffic, in which, as a rule, the 

 beasts cjet nothing at all. 



Shccj) are treated on board ship very much as the cattle are. 

 They are generally walked on board by means of gangways, are 

 placed in pens, and carried on deck as much as possible, as they 

 are found to stand the exposure on deck better than the close 

 atmosphere of the hold. 



The transit of sheep by sea calls for little further special 

 remark, except as to its disadvantages and evils ; and as cattle, 

 as well as the inferior classes of horses and ponies, suffer similar 

 ■evils, these, to avoid repetition, may be considered together. 



