24 



and with Captain A^inal Edwards, of Woods' Hole. I then went to 

 Lake Champlain for the Black Bass and Glass-eyed Perch. 



Meanwhile I exerted myself to the utmost to secure a suitable ear 

 for the puipose, but, to m}- great dismay, could not get one. I was 

 very particular that the car sliould be just what was wauted. Such a 

 ear must be forty feet long — a passenger baggage ear — with twelve 

 wheels, air brakes. Miller platform, and wide tread. The difficulties 

 that now arose,, in the wa}' of getting such a car, were legion. 



I applied to the Central Vei'mont Eailroad, the Boston and Albany, 

 the Great Western Railroad, the JSew York Central, the Central Pacific, 

 and other railroad companies, but with unfavorable results in every 

 ease. All kinds of cars were offered, from the plainest box freight car 

 to the regular passenger car, but all presented some objections which 

 prevented them from meeting the requirements. Some had not the air 

 brakes, some M-ere not long enough, some had too narrow a tread, and 

 so on. I was about giving up in despair, and had actually telegraphed to 

 California for parties there to get a car if they possibly could, when I 

 received a dispatch from Mr. Sargent, Superintendent of the Michigan 

 Central Railroad, to the effect that he would furnish a car exactly suita- 

 ble for the purpose. A bargain was immediately closed with him, and 

 on the eleventh of Ma}', the car was at Charlestown, New Hampshire. 

 It was a large, strong, well built, and handsome car, with wide tread, 

 twelve wheels, Miller platform, and air brakes, and was in every way 

 adapted for the purpose. 



By this time I had collected large supplies of fresh-water fish at 

 Charlestown, New Hampshire, and parties at work in various quarters 

 were securing the proper sizes of other fish for the expedition. The 

 main thing now remaining was to fit u]) the car for the journey. With 

 the great variety of fish which I had now arranged to take, it was ob- 

 viously impossible for any force that I could carry with me to keep 

 the water aerated by hand; I therefore turned my attention to devising 

 some machinery which would do the aerating automatically. Three 

 plans presented themselves. The first was to catch the air in large 

 funnel-mouthed pipes, placed on the top of tiie car, and to trust to the 

 motion of the car to force it into the tanks. One of these was accord- 

 ingly rigged on the car, and we made a trial trip to Bellows Falls. The 

 experiment was an entire failure, for, though a large volume of air was 

 carried through the pipe into the car, it did not come with force suffi- 

 cient to displace the water when the inside end was inserted in a tank. 

 The next plan was to force the air in, by means of fans or small wind- 

 mills on the top of the car, to be kept in motion by the progress of the 

 train. Upon further examination, however, this was given up as im- 

 practicable. The third plan, and the one finally adopted, was to attach 

 machinery to one of the axles of the car, in such a way as to acQuire suffi- 

 cient power to work a pair of air pumps. This was done bj^ passing a 

 belt around the axle, and continuing it, through a hole in the car, to a 

 countershaft inside. The counter-shaft was provided with two puUej's, 

 around each of which a belt was passed, which connected with the 

 crank-wheel of the air-pumps. Attached to each air-pump were two 

 main pipes, passing through the entire length of the car, from which 

 led, at suitable intervals, a dozen or so smaller pipes, of flexible rubber 

 hose, and of sufficient length to reach all the tanks, find in fact every 

 part of the car. Whenever the train was in motion the rotation of the 

 axle revolved the counter-shaft, which in turn worked the air-pumps. 

 These pumps, at every stroke of the piston rod, forced the air through 



