68 THE ACCLIMATISATION 



should not get loose." The arrangement, 

 in fact, was that of alternate layers of boxes 

 and ice — an excellent disposition, no doubt, 

 if ice did not melt, but the best calculated, 

 in these circumstances, to subject the 

 boxes to the greatest possible amount of 

 motion and concussion as the ice around 

 and between them decreased in bulk. The 

 last words of the description have no mean- 

 ing, for it is obvious that no precautions 

 avail to prevent the once compact mass 

 from getting loose, and ice and boxes would 

 at length become inextricably mixed and 

 dashed about with every pitch and roll of 

 the ship. 



This was one matter at least over which 

 Mr. Buckland had control, and he would 

 have been wise had he adopted the method 

 of packing both ice and ova which had 

 already proved successful. An impression 

 was derived from a lecture deHvered by him 

 at Glasgow, and generally entertained, that 

 the ova were frozen hard artificially before 

 shipment, which would certainly have killed 

 them, and though he has stated subse- 



