Fearnow. — Fish Distribution. 165 



TRANSPORTATION OF FISH 



When a distribution is to be made by one of the specially 

 equipped cars, the first matter of importance is to arrange 

 the trips with reference to the accessibility of the applicants, 

 who may be located in half-a-dozen different states. As 

 the cars are now equipped for carrying large loads of fish, it 

 frequently occurs that as many as 150 individual applicants 

 are supplied on a trip. Schedules for the car and for the 

 messengers are necessarily prepared in advance and appli- 

 cants notified by letter or by telegram concerning the exact 

 time that delivery of the fish is to be made. Owing to the 

 uncertainties of railroading, it frequently becomes necessary 

 to rearrange the whole schedule and renotify all applicants. 



It is the rule to move the car to a certain point, dispatch- 

 ing en route messengers who either fill applications on roads 

 parallel to lines traversed by the car or pursue a circular or 

 semicircular route, joining the car further along the line. 

 The most expensive messenger shipments are those in which 

 the messenger has to retrace the same line, and the least 

 expensive and the ones most frequently made are the circu- 

 lar, semicircular and triangular. Happily, there are few 

 trips made at the present time that necessitate return travel 

 without fish. Shipments off the main lines are usually made 

 by express or in care of train baggage masters. Shipments 

 without attendants are made to probably 95% of applicants 

 living off the main lines, necessitating over 1,000 such ship- 

 ments in the course of a year. There are on record many 

 messenger shipments in which 75% of the deliveries were 

 made successfully without an attendant. 



In distributing the annual output of the Bureau of Fish- 

 eries it is necessary to use, in addition to the regular distri- 

 bution force, probably as many as 150 station employees 

 who from time to time, make trips from the various hatcher- 

 ies. 



RAILROADS 



A number of the important railroads of the country have 

 extended courtesies to the bureau in the way of reduced 

 transportation rates for the movements of its distribution 

 cars. Practically all the important railroads have given the 

 bureau the privilege of carrying in baggage cars free of 

 charge shipments of live fish, the only condition imposed 

 being that the consignment be accompanied by an attendant 

 with first-class transportation. 



As a rule, however, the railroad companies are more 

 liberal to the states than to the Federal government. It is 



