xxxi] WASHINGTON TO SAN FRANCISCO 149 



experimental zoology. Here he showed me several hundred 

 skins of wild geese, roughly prepared, but every one with 

 numbered labels giving the date, hour, and exact spot where 

 they were each shot, with the direction of their flight, while 

 the contents of the stomach of each is preserved for examina- 

 tion. These have been obtained from various north-western 

 States, and by a close study of them he hopes to trace out 

 the exact course of their migration year by year. He hoped 

 that in time some of his land would be included within the 

 city limits, and would sell for a high price, in which case 

 he would leave the rest as a zoological experimental station 

 to the public. I made some suggestions to him as to experi- 

 ments in regard to instinct, heredity, and evolution, which 

 were much needed, and he said he would take them in hand 

 when his affairs were more settled. 



Sioux City had recently become a centre for agricultural 

 produce, and had a large pork-curing establishment ; and, as 

 in many other Western cities, there had been " a great boom 

 in real estate." Land two miles from the town, which was 

 bought three or four years back for ten dollars an acre, is now 

 selling at a hundred and fifty dollars ; while in the residential 

 parts of the city plots of one hundred and fifty feet square 

 sell for nine thousand dollars, equal to £1800, or about £3500 

 per acre, and in the business part of the city twice as much. 



One morning Mr. Talbot took me to see the pork-curing 

 establishment, where, during the season, they kill a thousand 

 hogs a day. The animals are collected in pens close to the 

 building, with a gate opening to an inclined pathway of 

 planks up to the top of the building. They walk up this of 

 their own accord in a continuous procession, and at the top 

 are caught up one after another by a chain round their hind 

 legs, and swung on to the men who kill, scald, scrape, and 

 cut them up ; all the separate parts going through the 

 several stages of cleaning and curing till the result is bacon, 

 hams, barrels of pork, black puddings, sausages, and bristles, 

 while the whole of the refuse is dried and ground up into a 

 valuable manure. The ingenuity of the whole process is 



