28 



Wc arrived at Chicago at eight o'clock and thirty minutes p. M., of 

 the same day, Saturday, June sixth. Here we had to wait ail night for 

 a train direct for San Francisco. The pumps, of course, ceasing to 

 work while the ear was still, I kept two men at the cranks all night 

 turning them by hand. At Chicago we took on five tons of water, and 

 two tons of ice, and left there the next morning at ten o'clock and forty- 

 five minutes A. m. ; crossed the Mississippi at four o'clock and twenty- 

 five minutes p. m., the same day, and put a few Salmon and Shad in the 

 river as an experiment. Took on four tons of water at Cedar liapids, and 

 reached Omaha at ten o'clock and thirty minutes the next morning, 

 Monday, June eighth. Up to this time the fresh-water fish had done 

 splendidly, no loss of any kind occurring except among the small Eels. 

 The Black Bass, Glass-eyed Perch, Cattish, Horn pouls, Penobscot Sal- 

 mon, and larger Eels, were in fine condition — about half of the Lobsters 

 had died. The Oysters for Great Salt Lake, and the Tautog for the 

 Pacific, and the Shad, were all in good order. The other salt-water 

 fish had given up the battle. 



We came into Omaha with the journals of our forward pair of 

 wheels very hot. An examination showed them to be so badly cut, 

 that it was necessary to put in another new pair of wheels — the author- 

 ities of the Union Pacific Railroad very kindly consenting to hold the 

 train till it was done, for which we felt extremely grateful, as, other- 

 wise, there would have been another day lost. At Omaha we met Mr. 

 George Bemis, who had very obligingly consented to have some 

 Nebraska fish in readiness for us at the Elkhorn River, and I must not 

 neglect this opportunity of saying that from the very beginning of my 

 correspondence with Mr. Bemis on the subject, he manifested the most 

 cordial disposition to assist the enterprise, and exerted himself to the 

 utmost to do his part towards helping it along. While the new wheels 

 wei'e being attached to the car we took on three tons of ice, and some 

 more circular belting kindly procured for us by Mr. Bemis, who accom- 

 panied the car as far as Fremont, Nebraska. Leaving Omaha we 

 arrived at the Elkhorn River at two o'clock and thirty minutes p. M., 

 exactly a year, within a half an hour, from the time when we went 

 through the bridge into that river with the first aquarium car. 



Through the courtesy of Mr. C. B. Havens, the train dispatcher of 

 the Union Pacific Railroad Company, at Omaha, we were permitted to 

 stop the train at the river, and to hold it there till we had taken on 

 some Western Bass and Mississippi Catfish, procured through the 

 agency of Mr. Bemis, and fifty gallons of water which we brought up 

 from the river in pails. By a sort of poetic justice the very river which 

 had swallowed up our car-load of fishes last year was made to contri- 

 bute to the success of this year's expedition. 



Thus far the weather had been very hot. To-night (June eighth) it 

 was quite cool, and about midnight we encountered a terrific storm, 

 which stopped the train awhile. The next morning dawned cool and 

 rainy, and in the course of the forenoon there came a furious hail 

 storm. 



We now thought we had a fair prospect of getting through with all 

 we had on board, and every thing prospered through the day, but at 

 night a calamity happened which appalled us. It was the loss of the 

 Shad. The circumstances were these: between the Elkhorn River, 

 Nebraska, and the Weber River, Utah, a distance of nine hundred and 

 fifty miles, there is no suitable water for Shad, except at the Laramie 

 *{iver. 



