HISTORY. 15 



extraordinary expenditure consist of cattle, meat, butter, 

 poultry, &c. Most of the beef class of imports come through 

 Holland and Belgium. Prior to 1865 but one importation 

 direct from Eussia is known to have been made into any port 

 of Great Britain, and this into that of London on 4th July, 

 1860. But indirectly large numbers of Hungarian and Gali- 

 cian cattle have been brought to English markets ; more of 

 late years, as the completion of two great lines of railroads, 

 which traverse Central and Southern Germany, and connect 

 Hamburg and Eotterdam with Vienna and Lemburg, furnish 

 quick transit for these supplies. (See 1st Eeport, p. 7.) The 

 immunity which England has enjoyed, prior to 1865, in such 

 importations, is traceable to the rigorous police measures 

 established in Western Europe, and to the fact that the 

 incubative stage of the Einderpest rarely extends beyond a 

 week. 



But it seems that two importers of cattle, Messrs. Honck 

 and Baker were induced by the representations of a Mr. 

 Burchell, who subsequently acted as their agent, and, in 

 expectation of a profit of one hundred per cent, to make a 

 contract with the Esthonian Agricultural Society for a large 

 number of sheep and cattle ; the latter to weigh at least one 

 thousand pounds each, and to be delivered at Eevel after the 

 ice had broken up in the Baltic. As some of the beeves 

 offered did not come up to the contract weight, forty-six were 

 sent down from the neighborhood of St. Petersburg, from 

 which the agent was to choose. These being on their arrival 

 much bruised, having been transported in four-horse wagons, 

 and deemed by him not fit for the London market, three 

 experts or judges were appointed by the local magistrates to 

 say how many were in a suitable condition to take ; and 

 thirteen were so adjudged. These, with the Esthonian cattle 

 which passed muster, made in all three hundred and twenty- 

 two ; but as one died in the yard before shipment, only three 

 hundred and twenty-one sailed from Eevel, on the 22d day of 

 May, 1865, in the " Tonning." This steam vessel landed at 

 Copenhagen to await orders whether, in view of the then 

 state of the markets, the owners desired her to proceed to 



