TRIP TO EUROPE WITH EGGS OF QUINNAT SALMON. 813 



telegram from you tliat Mr. Stone protested against their being opened, 

 giving as a reason that it would hasten their hatching, and stating that 

 they would go much better without repacking. This was so directly 

 contrary to all my experience that my lirst impulse was not to go with 

 them ; but, on more mature thought, it appeared that by this order the 

 responsibility of their journey was, without option on my part, shifted 

 from myself to Mr. Stone. The best of care was given all of them, and 

 I profited by my experience with those unopened, while also seeing how 

 my own box worked, and having the advantage of not having all the 

 eggs in one basket. 



The ship was the "Mosel," of the North German Lloyd, Captain Kein- 

 aber, with whom I sailed three years before on the shad expedition in 

 the " Donau," and to whom I am indebted for many favors. Two tons of 

 ice were bought and placed in the ice room of the ship situated in the 

 lower hold in the extreme forward end, where the " provision steward" 

 keeps his supplies of meats, ice, &c. The crates were placed in the for- 

 ward hatchway on the main (not upper) deck, in exactly the same place 

 in the same ship as were the shad eggs of Messrs. Welsher and Green 

 in the summer of 1875. The crates were merely an outside frame to 

 hold the fern leaves that enclosed the box of eggs within ; they were 

 wedged fast by the ship's carpenter to prevent shifting in a heavy sea, 

 and were kept covered with a large piece of ice all the time, renewed 

 night and morning. The small pieces were removed to the top of my 

 refrigerator box. 



Professor Milner had suggested packing the entire lot in ice, sur- 

 rounded by a load of straw, of which I thought most favorably, but 

 found that, though fish culturists might propose, owners and insurance 

 men would have the final disposition of combustibles, and so that 

 project was dropped, as the officers of the ship objected to it. * 



The following is a record of temperature within the box of trays in 

 which I had repacked 25,000 eggs. On opening the crate 206 eggs were 

 dead of the 25,000, and after packing I found the temperature next day 

 to be 46° in the top tray and 50° in the bottom, while the air in the 

 cellar was 62°. Ship sailed at 2 p. m. 13th; no record of temperature. 



