474 REPORT ON THE TRANSIT OF STOCK. 



tank may be supplied from the general tanks (probably them- 

 selves requiring enlargement) by help of the engine at any time, 

 and from it let pipes be laid along the deck, near to the line of 

 the heads of the animals arranged along the bulwarks and sides 

 of the holds, having taps at intervals of 20 feet or so, to which a 

 gutta-percha pipe can be screwed. One set of pipes would 

 supply both the deck and upper hold — the lower hold being 

 supplied by a set of pipes laid in the floor above it. With 

 such an arrangement as this the watering of the stock would 

 be made comparatively easy ; to effect it, the cattleman, keep- 

 ing up the service-tank supplies, and having screwed on his 

 gutta-percha pipe (10 or 15 feet long), would take it in one 

 hand, and with a pail in the other (light movable wooden 

 troughs being used for sheep), would pass from beast to beast, 

 supplying each in turn in probably not more, on an average, than 

 one minute each ; and this would in general be quick enough for 

 all practical purposes. 



The only objection to this system that occurs as likely to be 

 made, is on the score of expense ; but even although it entailed 

 increased storage tankroom, the whole apparatus for a large 

 steamer could not cost a larger sum than would be repaid ten- 

 fold by the benefit to the stock ; and when it is further considered 

 that water might thus be supplied without interfering with 

 almost any of the existing arrangements of a steamer, and that 

 quickly and conveniently too, the matter of expense becomes 

 very small, and does not appear as a very great objection to such 

 a, mode of supply, and we therefore suggest it as the best 

 ■arrangement possible in the circumstances. 



The only other evil of this mode of transit to which we can 

 allude here, is the knocking about, the falls, and consequent 

 trampling, suffocation, and strangulation, to which cattle and 

 sheep are especially liable during rough weather, and which 

 appears to be simply, as to the last named results, the effect of 

 overcrowding. The animals are packed together as closely as 

 they will stand, and when an ox falls, through its feet slipping on 

 the slimy boards, the chances are very great that the animals 

 next it on both sides will be thrown down on the top of it. This 

 is easily understood, when it is remembered that the animals 

 standing together in a row press mutually against each other ; 

 the moment, however, a vacancy is made by the fall of one, this 

 pressure tends to fill up the space left, by pushing the adjoining 

 beasts until they meet over the fallen one, which then has 

 scarcely a chance to regain its feet, even when these don't fall 

 over it ; but when this happens, and in a storm, the confusion 

 becomes inextricable, and the lives of three or four animals are 

 lost through such a small accident as the slipping down of one 

 1 least. So much is this felt, that almost the whole vigilance of 



