29 



When Seth Green crossed the continent in eighteen hundred and aev- 

 enty-one, and when I crossed it with Shad, in eighteen hundred and 

 seventy-three, the water in the Laramie River was good, and up to 

 to-day, we had received no information to lead us to think anything to 

 the contrary. We were consequently depending on keeping the Shad 

 on Laramie River water, from Laramie to the Weber. As we approached 

 Laramie, however, we heard various rumors to the effect that the recent 

 rains had washed a good deal of alkali into the river. There was no 

 alternative for us, however, and when the train stopped there, we took 

 a supply of Laramie River water for the Shad. This was about dusk on 

 Tuesday evening, June ninth. I stayed with them till midnight, and 

 left them in the hands of the long watch, who were to take them through 

 till morning. When I got up the next morning, at daybreak, every Shad 

 was dead. They had not been neglected an hour, nor a moment, since 

 they left the Hudson River, and the two young men who had charge of 

 them that morning were among my most zealous and trusted assistants, 

 so that i am confident it was not through neglect or want of ftiithful 

 care that they died. Knowing no other cause for their loss, we united 

 in attributing it to the unusual amount of alkaline matter in the water 

 of the Laramie, caused by the recent extraordinary rains. 



AH that (lay it seemed as if there had been a funeral on board, so de- 

 pressing was the influence of this calamity to all in the car. It was a 

 terrible disappointment to me, but knowing that everyone had done his 

 duty, I endeavored to cheer up the others b}' turning their attention to 

 the flshes which were still living. We took on four tons of water at the 

 Weber River, and reached Ogden, Utah, a thousand miles from San 

 Francisco, at six o'clock on the evening of Wednesday, June tenth. 

 Here I left a barrel of Oysters and two spawning Lobsters, in first-rate 

 condition, for Great Salt Lake. Our supply of Atlantic Ocean water 

 was exhausted today. I had previously telegraphed to the California 

 Fish Commissioners for a supply of Pacific Ocean water, which we heard 

 to-day would meet us at Winnemucca. We now had on board, all in 

 good condition. Black Bass, Horn-pouts, Glass-eyed Perch, Rock Bass, 

 Penobscot Salmon, fresh-water Eels, Schuylkill Catfish, Mississippi 

 Catfish, Tautog, Lobsters, and salt-water Eels, with which varieties — 

 ten in all — we hoped to get through alive, and, as the sequel will show, 

 did actually succeed in bringing through safely. Leaving Ogden about 

 dark, we arrived at Carlin, Nevada, at ten o'clock and fifteen minutes 

 A. M., June eleventh, and took on a small supply of water. At eleven 

 o'clock and twenty-five minutes a. m. we met the Central Pacific freight 

 train, with the supply of Pacific O^ean water, which was transferred to 

 our car, and immediately used on the salt-water fish, which showed 

 every sign of being greatly refreshed by the change. Took on more 

 fresh water at Humboldt, Nevada, at six o'clock and fifteen minutes 

 p. M., and ten tons of ice at Wadsworth, at midnight. At Truckee, Cali- 

 fornia, B. B. Redding, of the California Fish Commission, came on board, 

 and accompanied us to San Francisco. This was the last day of the 

 trip (Thursday, June twelfth), and no one can tell the immense relief it 

 was to our party to know it For seven days and eight nights, with 

 only three or four hours rest out of the twenty-four, we had kept inces- 

 santly at work over those fishes. Want of sleep was beginning to break 

 us down. We had lived in a car full of water and melting ice, which 

 had, literally, hardly a dry spot in it. The long journey itself, with the 

 constant jar and rattle of the train, is enough to nearly wear one out. 

 We had taken on board and cut up into suitable pieces and packed away, 



