58 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETV 



adopt some modern methods of transporting perishable objects. 



How far behind the age, and how short sighted it proves them 

 to be when we find an English paper asking, " Cannot science 

 persuade the railroad companies or large smack owners, or mer- 

 chants, to have suitable fish vans, refrigerating or ice vans? " 



The exhibition did much to educate the English people on 

 this subject, and toward its close, in October, 1883, the Fish 

 League, (limited) of London, placed refrigerator cars, (Knott's 

 patent) on the London & Northwestern Railway. The trial trip 

 proved successful, when sixty baskets of fresh herring were 

 brought from Wyck, in North Scotland, to London. They were 

 sixty hours en route, the shipment moving at the rate of nine 

 miles an hour. 



From an English standpoint it seemed wonderful that the fish 

 came 550 miles inland in good condition, and one of the papers 

 stating that " they were as dry and sweet, and clear about the 

 eyes, as though they had only been drawn up from the North Sea 

 a short half hour or so before." These fresh herring, the first 

 ever brought from North Scotland to London, retailed in mar- 

 ket at from four to six cents a dozen. 



The Fish League contemplated extending the system from 

 various important fishing ports to the chief centers of popula- 

 tion. Extortionate rates of the railways were found to be the 

 chief obstacle the League had to encounter. It was plain that if 

 the companies would not make concessions that the era of the 

 refrigerator car was almost as remote as before, and the problem 

 of cheap fish would not be solved in this way. Since 1883, 1 am 

 informed there have been some concessions by the railway com- 

 panies, but with true proverbial conservatism, there has been but 

 little progress made in adopting that which has proven such a 

 boon to all classes in all parts of America. 



Washington, D. C. 



